Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “wrathful” come from?

Wrathful comes from English wrath and Old English -ful, ultimately derived from Proto-Germanic fullaz meaning full, itself from Proto-Indo-European pleh₁- meaning to fill.

wrathful (English): Possessed of great wrath; very angry

Definitions

  1. Possessed of great wrath; very angry

Ancestry of “wrathful”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishwrattheful—
2Middle Englishwratthe—
3Old Englishwrǣþþuwrath, fury
4Proto-West Germanicwraiþiþuanger, fury, wrath
5Proto-West Germanicwraiþextremely angry, irate, wroth; hostile, violent
6Proto-Germanicwraiþaztwisted, bent out of shape, anxious; extremely...
7Proto-Indo-Europeanwreyt-to twist
8Proto-Indo-Europeanwer-to burn; to cover, heed, notice; squirrel

Words derived from “wrathful”

  • wrathfully
  • wrathfulness
Every word from Proto-Indo-European wer- →