prideful (adj.)
"full of pride, arrogant, insolent, scornful," c. 1500, from pride (n.) + -ful. Related: Pridefully; pridefulness. Old English had prutswongor "overburdened with pride." Middle English had prideless "without pride" in a good or bad sense (late 14c.), also proudful "ostentatious, indicative of pride" (mid-14c.).
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Middle English prede, from late Old English pryto, Kentish prede, Mercian pride "unreasonable self-esteem," especially as one of the deadly sins; "haughtiness, overbearing treatment of others; pomp, love of display," from prud (see proud (adj.)).
There is debate whether Scandinavian cognates (Old Norse pryði, Old Swedish prydhe, Danish pryd, etc.) are borrowed from Old French (which got it from Germanic) or from Old English.
In Middle English sometimes also positive, "proper pride, personal honor, good repute; exalted position; splendor," also "prowess or spirit in an animal." It is first attested as the word for groups of lions in a late 15c. book of terms, but pride was not commonly so used until 20c. Used in reference to the erect penis from 15c.
The meaning "that which makes a person or people most proud" is from c. 1300. Paired with prejudice from 1610s.
Pride goþ befor contricioun, & befor falling þe spirit shall ben enhauncid. [Proverbs xvi.18, Wycliffe Bible, 1382]
Another late Old English/Middle English word for "pride, haughtiness, presumption" was orgol, orgel, which survived into 16c. as orgul, orgueil, from Old French orgoill (11c.), which is supposedly from a Germanic word meaning "renowned."
word-forming element attached to nouns (and in modern English to verb stems) and meaning "full of, having, characterized by," also "amount or volume contained" (handful, bellyful); from Old English -full, -ful, which is full (adj.) become a suffix by being coalesced with a preceding noun, but originally a separate word. Cognate with German -voll, Old Norse -fullr, Danish -fuld. Most English -ful adjectives at one time or another had both passive ("full of x") and active ("causing x; full of occasion for x") senses.
It is rare in Old English and Middle English, where full was much more commonly attached at the head of a word (for example Old English fulbrecan "to violate," fulslean "to kill outright," fulripod "mature;" Middle English had ful-comen "attain (a state), realize (a truth)," ful-lasting "durability," ful-thriven "complete, perfect," etc.).
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updated on December 27, 2020
Dictionary entries near prideful
pricket
prickle
prickly
prick-song
pride
prideful
prier
priest
priestcraft
priestess
priesthood