healthful

Do we really need the word 'healthful'? what does it convey that 'healthy' doesn't?

'tea is a healthful food'

I keep on coming across it and it irks me about as much as my waiter asking if I am 'still working on that plate'

ta

I don't see 'healthful' often, but I am also irked by 'wellness'.

yes bjd, 'wellness' for me sits in the same category, i had almost mentioned it as well in my OP.

"wellness" is well used in Central Europe, particularly Hungary, to represent those institutions which attempt to encourage a healthful life... here

#3 -- I think that use of wellness started in Germany. I could be wrong.

OP, if I'm not mistaken, nutraxfornerves objects to the use of "healthy" in sentences like your example, insisting on "healthful".

(And she may object to tea being called a food rather than a drink. I think I do.)

(And she may object to tea being called a food rather than a drink. I think I do.)

yes, you're right. It's because I was reading an article about 'superfoods' and tea was listed as one of them. I had wanted to edit it but by that time bjd had already responded, locking the OP...

Vinny, according to Wikipedia 'wellness' originates in the US...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellness_%28alternative_medicine%29

Thanks, MTL. I think the word is now more popular in Germany than in the US though. At least as something to put into the name of your establishment.

"Wellness" with the language restricted to German gets 11,200,000 Google hits.

Aaaaaah! One of my pet peeves.

Healthy is the state of being in good health. I am not sick, I am healthy.

+Healthful" is something that promotes health & well-being. Merriam Webster says "beneficial to health of body or mind"

But, it's probably a losing cause. "Healthy" in the sense of promoting heath has been cited since the 16th C. so maybe I'm just being a stickler.

Well, well, and well. According to several sources, the distinction between "healthy" and "healthful" was something invented by Alfred Ayres (pen name of Thomas Embly Osmun) in 1881, in a little number called
THE VERBALIST
A MANUAL
DEVOTED
TO BRIEF DISCUSSIONS OF THE RIGHT AND THE WRONG USE OF WORDS
AND
TO SOME OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST TO THOSE WHO WOULD SPEAK AND WRITE WITH PROPRIETY

HIs big deal was correct pronunciation of words. He taught elocution & drama, among other things.

Healthy—Wholesome. The first of these two words is often improperly used for the second; as, " Onions are a healthy+ vegetable." A man, if he is in good health, is +healthy;+ the food he eats, if it is not deleterious, is +wholesome.+ A +healthy+ ox makes +wholesome+ food. We speak of +healthy+ surroundings, a +healthy+ climate, situation, employment, and of +wholesome+ food, advice, examples. +Healthful+ is generally used in the sense of conducive to +health,+ virtue, morality ; as, +healthful exercise, the healthful spirit of the community—meaning that the spirit that prevails in the community is conducive to virtue and good morals.

I now retire to my cave.

Healthy in Hungarian is "egészséges" , which in English would represent wholesomeness in its adjective form...Interesting..

Healthful+ is not a word I've ever heard (Scot living in England). I assumed that it must be a US word. It seems I am wrong: I looked it up in Chambers (published in Edinburgh) expecting to find nothing, or 'chiefly US'; but, no, Chambers note: +adj causing or bringing good health.

By contrast, there is no entry for 'wellness'.

"healthful" is first recorded in 1398 (John of Trevisa).

"Wellness" is apparently as recent as 1654 (Lord Wariston). The OED calls it "rather a nonce-word than of settled status like illness ." But since both Thomas Carlyle and his wife used it, I'm a wee bit surprised that it's not in Chambers, which has a reputation for being quite thorough (with respect to headwords if not meanings) and which tends to favor the Scots. The OED also quotes A.C. Benson, master of Magdalen and one of the multifaceted Bensons, using it in his life of his father the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Noted with thanks, Vinny.

By contrast, there is no entry for 'wellness'.

Although there are a number of 'wellness clinics' (or 'centres') in the UK.

:) !

well, at least 'healthful' seems to have a long pedigree- i will no longer dismiss it as some kind of new-age neologism. thanks for the input

The terms Wellness and Healthful, when I hear them, do not make me feel well or healthy.

Is it the same idea as "prideful"? I saw a quote by an American recently (I can´t remember who, nor the quote - sorry) and couldn´t help thinking it should just be "proud". Or does prideful have a more arrogant connotation?

Or does prideful have a more arrogant connotation?

Perhaps it helps to make clear which meaning of 'proud' the speaker has in mind? To be a proud person and to be proud of one's children are quite different and in many languages there are separate words for these two concepts.