pernicious
adjEtymology Analyzable as pernīx ("swift") + -ious.
1
Obsolete swift; celeritous.
- Related terms
- pernicity
pernicious
adjUK /pəˈnɪʃəs/ · US /pɚˈnɪʃəs/
Etymology From Middle English, from Old French pernicios, from Latin perniciōsus (“destructive”), from perniciēs (“destruction”), from per (“through”) + nex (“slaughter, death”).
1
Causing much harm in a subtle way.
- pernicious influence
- pernicious effects
4 more examples
- They warned of the pernicious effects of misinformation.
- The weed has a pernicious influence on local crops.
- Ang. Belieue me on mine Honor, My words expreſſe my purpoſe. Iſa. Ha? Little honor, to be much beleeu'd, And moſt pernitious purpoſe: Seeming, ſeeming. I will proclaime thee Angelo, looke for't.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], page 70, column 1:
- […]her health also having suffered by the change, she immediately, when told of Douglas's projected departure from India, felt the strongest desire to accompany him; and to which Colonel Melbourne the more readily consented, having with reluctance yielded to her request of quitting England, willing as he had been to sacrifice the enjoyment of her society rather than that she should submit to the disadvantages attendant upon a residence in a clime usually found so pernicious to the female constitution.1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XVIII, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 231:
2
Causing death or injury; deadly.
3
Of a person Insidiously villainous: intending to cause harm, especially in a subtle way.
- Derived terms
- antipernicious, pernicious anemia, perniciously, perniciousness, pernicious scale