Etymology

helpless

help·less
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Today it means: Unable to defend oneself. Full definition →

Middle English helples ← Old English *helplēas ← Proto-Germanic *helpōlausaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*helpōlausaz
  2. Old English · inherited from*helplēas“helpless”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromhelples
  4. English todayhelpless

From Middle English helples, from Old English *helplēas (“helpless”) from Proto-Germanic *helpōlausaz, equivalent to help + -less. Compare Dutch hulpeloos (“helpless”), German hilflos (“helpless”), Danish hjælpeløs (“helpless”) and Swedish hjälplös (“helpless”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.