worthless

Etymology

It is formed from English worth + -less,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the base being the noun.^[2][3] That noun is from Old English weorþ (“value, price; merit”),^[2] and it is cognate with Dutch waard, German Wert and Old Norse verð.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a thing, having no worth or value, useless: 1573, in Gascoigne's Adventures of Master F. I.^[3] Merriam-Webster gives about 1577,^[6][7] Etymonline the 1580s,^[2] and the 1989 edition of the OED 1588.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word was applied to people almost at once: from 1576, in Pettie's Petite Pallace, it meant lacking merit, contemptible.^[3] A further sense, undeserving of something such as praise or honour, appears in 1586 and lasted until 1811;^[3] the Shorter Oxford quotes Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, "A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such honour".^[4] Johnson (1755) put the moral sense first, "having no virtues, dignity, or excellence", and "having no value" second.^[9] Modern dictionaries reverse that order and treat the moral sense as secondary.^[10][7] With the, the adjective has also been used since 1758 for worthless people or things as a group.^[3]

Timeline

• 1573 – of a thing, having no worth or value.^[3]
• 1576 – of a person, lacking merit; contemptible.^[3]
• 1586 – undeserving of something; of a thing, unworthy of a person (obsolete by 1811).^[3]
• 1758 – noun, with the: worthless people or things.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having no value or material worth: The old shares proved worthless when the firm collapsed.^[7][6][10]
2. Of no use or profit; useless: It was worthless to keep digging after dark.^[7][6]
3. Of a person, lacking merit or moral character; contemptible or despicable.^[3][10][7]
4. (obsolete, 1586–1811) Undeserving of something; unworthy.^[3][4]

Noun

1. the worthless: worthless people or things as a group.^[3]

Word family

• worthlessly
• worthlessness

Related words

• worth
• worthy
• -less

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt