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
- Possessed of great wrath; very angry
Ancestry of “wrathful”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | wrattheful | Wrathful, angry; feeling anger |
| 2 | Middle English | wratthe | Wrath, anger, or an instance of it |
| 3 | Old English | wrǣþþu | wrath, fury |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | wraiþiþu | anger, fury, wrath |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | wraiþ | extremely angry, irate, wroth; hostile, violent |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | wraiþaz | twisted, bent out of shape, anxious; extremely... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | wreyt- | to twist |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | wer- | to burn; to cover, heed, notice; squirrel |