sinful

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sinful, inherited from Old English synfull (“sinful; a sinner”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from Old English synn + -full.^[3][6][7] The base, sin, goes back to Proto-Germanic *sunjō,^[7][1] which Etymonline gives as *sundiō.^[6] The OED compares Old Norse syndafullr, Swedish syndfull and Danish syndefuld.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of people, full of sin, wicked; also, as a noun, a sinner: in Old English, where it translates Latin peccātor in the gospel of Luke,^[4][7] and in the Vespasian Psalter.^[7] Dictionary.com dates it to before 900,^[5] and Merriam-Webster to before the 12th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From people the word spread to their acts: the OED's first record of this use is about 1175, in the Ormulum,^[7] although the Shorter Oxford dates it only as Middle English.^[8] In Middle English it had many regional forms, such as senful in Kent or the south-east Midlands and sunful chiefly in the West Midlands or the south-west.^[2] Chaucer used it 25 times.^[9] Johnson (1755) still kept the theological force, with "alien from God; not holy; unsanctified" as his first sense.^[10] A weakened sense appeared in the 19th century: from 1863, in T. G. Shaw's Wine, it could mean highly reprehensible or merely excessive, as a colloquial intensive.^[7][6] In Wiltshire the word was an adverb for "excessively", as in sinful ordinary, very plain in looks.^[11]

Timeline

• before 900 – of people, full of sin, wicked; as a noun, a sinner.^[5][7][4]
• c. 1175 – of acts, involving sin.^[7]
• 1863 – highly reprehensible; excessive, as a colloquial intensive.^[7][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person: full of sin; wicked: a sinful soul in need of forgiveness.^[3][7][8]
2. Of an act or thought: involving sin: sinful pride.^[3][7][8]
3. (colloquial) Highly reprehensible, or excessive in manner or extent: It is sinful how much bread that bakery throws away.^[3][7][8]

Noun

1. the sinful: sinful people as a group.^[7][8]
2. (obsolete, Old English to late Middle English) A sinful person; a sinner.^[7][8]

Word family

• sinfully
• sinfulness
• unsinful

Related words

• sin
• -ful

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ 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)