harmless

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English harmles,^[2][3] formed from English harm + -less.^[4][5][6][3] Wiktionary instead traces it through an unattested Old English *hearmlēas to Proto-Germanic *harmalausaz (“without harm”), with the cognates German harmlos, Danish harmløs and Swedish harmlös.^[1] The noun harm is from Old English hearm (“hurt, evil, grief, pain, insult”),^[7][8] related to Old Frisian herm, Old Saxon harm, Old High German harm and Old Norse harmr (“grief”).^[7][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Free from harm, unhurt: about 1290, in the South English Legendary,^[4] which the Middle English Dictionary dates about 1300, like Etymonline.^[2][5] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1250–1300.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word first described harm not suffered, not harm not done: someone who falls harmles is not hurt.^[2][4] By 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's chronicle, it could also mean free from guilt, innocent,^[4] and the Wycliffite Bible, before 1382, uses harmlis for Latin innoxia.^[2] Chaucer has the word once.^[11] From 1418 it appears for freedom from loss or from liability to pay, especially in to save harmless and to hold harmless.^[4][3][6] The sense now usual, doing or causing no harm, appears only in 1533, in More.^[4][5] Johnson (1755) still gives two main senses: "innocent; innoxious; not hurtful" and "unhurt; undamaged".^[12] In Aberdeen harmless could mean unharmed, in Surrey a harmless price was fair to both sides, and in Sussex a harmless child was friendly and winning.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – free from harm, unhurt.^[4][2][5]
• 1297 – free from guilt, innocent.^[4]
• 1418 – free from loss or liability, especially in to save harmless.^[4]
• 1533 – doing or causing no harm, in More.^[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not causing injury or damage; innocuous: The large spider in the bath is quite harmless.^[9][4][3]
2. Unlikely to annoy or worry anyone; inoffensive: a harmless old bore.^[9][4]
3. Free from loss or liability, especially in to save harmless and to hold harmless.^[3][4][6]
4. (rare) Free from harm; unhurt.^[4][6][3]
5. (archaic) Free from guilt; innocent.^[4][3][6]

Word family

• harmlessly
• harmlessness

Related words

• harm
• harmful

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)