futile

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French futile and directly borrowed from Latin fūtilis (“that pours out easily, leaky; vain, worthless”), also futtilis,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} a figurative use of a word meaning literally "pouring out easily, easily emptied"; used as a noun, the Latin adjective meant a water vessel broad above and pointed below, hence "leaky, unreliable".^[4] It is usually derived from the stem of fundō (“to pour, melt”),^{[2][6][3][5][8]} from a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *gheu- (“to pour”),^[4][9] the source also of found "to cast metal" and of fuse.^[3][7][10] Klein relates it to fūtis (“pitcher”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Incapable of producing any result; useless, ineffectual, vain: before 1575, in Harpsfield's treatise on the divorce of Henry VIII.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the word to about 1555,^[3][5] Etymonline to the 1550s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the early 17th century the literal sense "leaky" gave "unable to hold one's tongue, talkative", used by Bacon in 1612 and obsolete by 1625;^[2] Johnson (1755) still listed "talkative, loquacious" first, quoting Bacon, before "trifling, worthless".^[12] From 1749, in Bolingbroke, it described people occupied with trifles or lacking purpose, a sense the OED marks as perhaps obsolete,^[2] although Collins still records "inane, foolish".^[13] The noun futility appears in 1623, probably modelled on French futilité,^[3] while from 1892 futile itself was occasionally used for a futile person.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1555 – useless, vain.^[3][5]
• before 1575 – incapable of producing any result.^[2]
• 1612 – talkative (obsolete by 1625).^[2]
• 1623 – futility.^[3]
• 1749 – occupied with trifles, lacking purpose.^[2]
• 1755 – Johnson: talkative; trifling, worthless.^[12]
• 1892 – as a noun, a futile person.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having no useful result; ineffective or fruitless: Their efforts to save the old mill proved futile.^[5][13][2]
2. Pointless or unimportant; trifling.^[13][2]
3. Foolish or inane.^[13]
4. (obsolete, 1612–1625) Talkative, unable to keep a secret.^[2][12]

Word family

• futilely
• futileness
• unfutile

Related words

• futility
• futilitarian
• found
• fuse

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins