hateful

Etymology

It is formed from English hate + -ful,^[2][3][4][5] and is recorded as hateful.^[6] The OED compares Old Swedish hatfuller, now hatfull, and Old Norse hatrsfullr.^[2] The noun hate is from Old English hete (“hatred, spite”),^[3][7] reshaped in Middle English after the verb, hatian,^[3][7][2] and perhaps partly after Old Norse hatr.^[2] Etymonline takes it back to Proto-Germanic *hatis- and Proto-Indo-European *kad- (“sorrow, hatred”);^[3] Klein writes the root with a long vowel.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Arousing hatred, odious: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[2] The Middle English Dictionary's first quotation is about 1384, in that Bible's Hosea, where Y hadde hem hateful renders the Latin exosus habui eos.^[6] Etymonline dates "full of hate" to the mid-14th century and "exciting hate" to the late 14th,^[3] and Dictionary.com gives 1300–50.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word faced two ways from the start, and the Middle English Dictionary puts "hated, odious", "full of hate" and, of an influence, "stirring up hatred" under one heading.^[6] The active sense is recorded by the OED from before 1400, in the Cursor Mundi.^[2] Chaucer has the adjective 8 times.^[9] Johnson (1755) still listed both: "that which causes abhorrence" and "abhorrent; detesting; malignant", quoting Dryden's hateful eyes.^[10] Trench counted it with dreadful and frightful among words whose meaning had narrowed, citing Shakespeare's the hateful Commons and Pope's hateful eyes for the older use.^[11] The Shorter Oxford now marks "full of hatred" as archaic,^[4] although Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins still list it.^[5][12] The passive sense has also weakened, to merely very unpleasant or annoying.^[2][5] From 1510 the word could also be used with the for hateful people or things as a group.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1382 – arousing hatred, odious.^[2][6]
• before 1400 – full of hate, malevolent.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the mid-14th century.^[3]
• 1510 – with the, hateful people or things collectively.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Arousing or deserving hatred; detestable: a hateful rumour.^[12][5][2]
2. Full of or showing hate; malicious: hateful graffiti.^[12][5][2]
3. Very unpleasant or annoying, in a weakened use: It was hateful to be stuck indoors all summer.^[5][2]

Word family

• hatefully
• hatefulness
• unhateful

Related words

• hate
• hatred
• heinous

Usage notes

Dictionary.com separates it from three near-synonyms: hateful means actually causing hatred or very strong dislike, while obnoxious stresses annoyance from objectionable qualities, odious what is disagreeable and displeasing, and offensive the distaste and resentment a thing provokes.^[8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins