harmful

Etymology

It is formed from English harm + -ful.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Etymonline notes that Old English had hearmful,^[3][7] but thinks the modern word is probably a Middle English formation.^[3] Harm is from Old English hearm (“hurt, pain; evil, grief; insult”), from Proto-Germanic *harmaz.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Causing injury or hurt: before 1340, in R. Rolle's Psalter,^[2] and in 1340 in the Ayenbite of Inwit, which calls idle words harmuolle and perilous.^[6] Etymonline dates it to the mid 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense has changed little since Middle English, though the Middle English Dictionary records a further sense "sorrowful, bitter" alongside "injurious, pernicious".^[6] Chaucer used the word twice.^[9] Johnson (1755) glossed it as "hurtful; mischievous; noxious; injurious; detrimental", quoting Spenser on a spear's "harmful head".^[10]

Timeline

• before 1340 – causing harm, injurious.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Causing or likely to cause harm; injurious or damaging: harmful fumes from the factory.^[11][4][2]

Word family

• harmfully
• harmfulness
• unharmful

Related words

• harmless

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins