Where does “harmful” come from?
Harmful comes from Old English hearmful, a compound of hearm meaning injury or harm and full meaning full of.
harmful (English): of a kind likely to be damaging; injurious
Definitions
- of a kind likely to be damaging; injurious
Ancestry of “harmful”, step by step
harmful traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English harm
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | harm | physical injury; hurt; damage; emotional or... |
| 2 | Middle English | harm | harm, injury, ruination |
| 3 | Old English | hearm | harm |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | harm | painful; pain, harm |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | harmaz | painful; sorrowful; doleful; harmful; malicious;... |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱormo- | suffering, pain |