Etymologically
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grateful

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈɡreɪt.fəl/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from obsolete grate “agreeable, thankful” (1523) and -ful,[2][3][4][5] grate being borrowed from Latin grātus (“pleasing, thankful”) (see grace),[2][5] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *gwere- (“to favour”).[3] Weekley called it “a most unusual formation”, -ful being added to an adjective,[3] and the OED suggests that it may have been influenced by Italian gradevole “pleasing”.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Feeling gratitude, thankful: 1552 in the OED, Barnhart and MWU.[6][2][5] Pleasing to the mind or senses is from 1553 in the OED,[6] and Etymonline gives the 1550s for both.[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “pleasing, agreeable, welcome”, as in the grateful shade, is now archaic.[7][8] Land responsive to cultivation was called grateful from 1832.[6]

Timeline

  • 1523 – grate, agreeable.[2]
  • 1552 – thankful.[6]
  • 1553 – pleasing.[6]
  • 1832 – of land, fertile.[6]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Feeling or showing gratitude; thankful.
  2. (archaic) Pleasing or welcome: a grateful shade.

Word family

  • gratefully
  • gratefulness
  • overgrateful
  • ungrateful
  • gratitude
  • ingrate
  • grace
  • gratify
  • gratis

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin