Etymology

painful

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Today it means: Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental. Full definition →

First used 14th c.Middle English paynful
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited frompaynful
  2. English todaypainful

From Middle English paynful, peinful, peynful, paynefull, peynefull, equivalent to pain + -ful. Compare Danish pinefuld (“painful”).

First known use, by meaning

  • from 14th c. Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental.
  • from 15th c. Afflicted or suffering with pain (of a body part or, formerly, of a person).
  • from 15th c. Requiring effort or labor; difficult, laborious.
  • from 16th c. Painstaking; careful; industrious.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.