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Origin and history of harm

harm(n.)

Old English hearm "hurt, pain; evil, grief; insult," from Proto-Germanic *harmaz (source also of Old Saxon harm, Old Norse harmr "grief, sorrow," Old Frisian herm "insult; pain," Old High German harm, German Harm "grief, sorrow, harm"), from PIE *kormo- "pain." To be in harm's way is from 1660s.

harm(v.)

Old English hearmian "to hurt, injure," from the noun (see harm (n.)). It has ousted Old English skeþþan (see scathe (v.)) in all but a few senses. Related: Harmed; harming.

Entries linking to harm

scathe(v.)

late 12c., scathen, "to harm, injure, hurt; to cause harm, damage, or loss to," from Old Norse skaða "to hurt, harm, damage, injure," from Proto-Germanic *skathan- (source also of Old English sceaþian "to hurt, injure," Old Saxon skathon, Old Frisian skathia, Middle Dutch scaden, Dutch schaden, Old High German scadon, German schaden, Gothic scaþjan "to injure, damage").

In some sources this is traced to a PIE *sket- "to injure." The Germanic word was seen as cognate with some Celtic formations and Greek a-skēthēs "unharmed, unscathed," but Beekes finds that connection "impossible" on phonetic grounds and Boutkan, agreeing, writes that "The etymon is limited to Celt.-Gmc." and offers no IE etymology.

It survives mostly in its negative past participle unscathed, and in the figurative meaning "sear with invective or satire" (1852, usually as scathing). The latter seems to have developed specifically from the word in the sense of "scar, scorch" used by Milton in "Paradise Lost" (1667).

harmful(adj.)

mid-14c., from harm (n.) + -ful. Related: Harmfully. Old English had hearmful but the modern word probably is a Middle English formation.

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Trends of harm

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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injury

late 14c., "harm, damage, loss; a specific injury," from Anglo-French injurie "wrongful action" (Old French injure, 13c.), from Latin iniuria "wrong, an injustice, insult, unlawful violence, assault, damage, harm," noun use of fem. of iniurius "wrongful, unjust, unlawful," from i

hurt

c. 1200, "to injure, wound" (the body, feelings, reputation, etc.), also "to stumble (into), bump into; charge against, rush, crash into; knock (things) together," from Old French hurter "to ram, strike, collide with" (Modern French heurter), a word of uncertain origin. Perhaps f

damage

c. 1300, "harm, injury; hurt or loss to person, character, or estate," from Old French damage, domage "loss caused by injury" (12c., Modern French dommage), from dam "damage," from Latin damnum "loss, hurt, damage" (see damn). In law (as damages) "the value in money of what

nuisance

c. 1400, "injury, hurt, harm," from Anglo-French nusaunce, Old French nuisance "harm, wrong, damage," from past-participle...stem of nuire "to harm," from Latin nocere "to hurt" (from PIE root *nek- (1) "death")....

pernicious

from per "completely" (see per) + necis "violent death, murder," related to necare "to kill," nocere "to hurt, injure, harm...," noxa "harm, injury" (from PIE root *nek- (1) "death")....

dangerous

affable), from Anglo-French dangerous, Old French dangeros (12c., Modern French dangereux), from danger "power, power to harm...The modern sense of "involving danger, hazardous, unsafe, risky, liable to inflict injury or harm" is from c. 1400....

prejudice

Medieval Latin prejudicium "injustice," from Latin praeiudicium "prior judgment, judicial examination before trial; damage, harm...Meaning "injury, physical harm" is mid-14c., as is the legal sense of "detriment or damage caused by the violation of a legal...

distortion

1580s, "action of distorting; state of being twisted out of shape," from Latin distortionem (nominative distortio), noun of action from past-participle stem of distorquere "to twist different ways, distort," from dis- "completely" (see dis-) + torquere "to twist" (from PIE root *

dislocation

c. 1400, dislocacioun, "displacement of parts," originally of bones of the limbs, from Old French dislocacion (14c.), or directly from Medieval Latin dislocationem (nominative dislocatio), noun of action from past participle stem of dislocare "put out of place," from Latin dis- "

change

c. 1200, "to alter, make different, change" (transitive); early 13c. as "to substitute one for another;" mid-13c. as "to make (something) other than what it was, cause to turn or pass from one state to another;" from late 13c. as "to become different, be altered" (intransitive),

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