Baleful means deadly or pernicious in influence, or foreboding evil. While similar to 'baneful,' 'baleful' emphasizes the threatening aspect of something harmful.
Baleful is an adjective describing something that threatens or portends evil, like a "baleful look." It is related to 'bane,' meaning slayer or murderer, but emphasizes malevolent influence rather than direct causation of evil.
Word | baleful |
---|---|
Date | January 2, 2017 |
Type | adjective |
Syllables | BAIL-ful |
Etymology | The bale of baleful comes from Old English bealu ("evil"), and the bane of the similar-looking baneful comes from Old English bana ("slayer" or "murderer"). Baleful and baneful are alike in meaning as well as appearance, and they are sometimes used in quite similar contexts—but they usually differ in emphasis. Baleful typically describes what threatens or portends evil (e.g., "a baleful look," "baleful predictions"). Baneful applies typically to what causes evil or destruction (e.g., "a baneful secret," "the baneful bite of the serpent"). Both words are used to modify terms like influence, effect, and result, and in such uses there is little that distinguishes them. |
Examples | "His face might have been chiselled out of marble, so hard and set was its expression, while its eyes glowed with a baleful light." — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, 1887 "Out of nowhere, a huge fad sweeps the country. It dominates social media and leads to a blizzard of think pieces, which are followed almost immediately by a backlash, as critics warn of the fad’s baleful consequences." — James Surowiecki, The New Yorker, July 25, 2016 |
Definition | 1 : deadly or pernicious in influence 2 : foreboding or threatening evil |
Tags: wordoftheday::adjective
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