Hereâs hoping everyone ate only âhealthyâ foods at Thanksgiving. Many people, including those watching calories or wanting to be âhealthy,â probably ate only âhealthfulâ foods.
Anyone who did not eat âhealthyâ foods probably spent the next day or so feeling very unhealthy, many users of proper English might say, because âhealthyâ means ânot sick;â it does not mean âgood for you.â The foods that are good for you, they will say, are âhealthful.â
Not so fast.
âPeople who hold this view are swimming against the tide of history, for healthy has been used to mean âhealthfulâ since the 16th century,â says the American Heritage Book of English Usage.
Many dictionaries define âhealthyâ as âhealthful,â or âconducive to good health,â and âhealthfulâ as âhealthy.â But there are those who still insist that âhealthyâ is properly used only to describe the health of an object itself, not its effects.
Thatâs perfectly healthy usage for those who want to maintain the distinctionâdefinitely a vanishing breed. Garnerâs Modern American Usage is rooting to keep the two separate, saying the change âwould lead to a less healthy state of the language.â Merriam-Websterâs Dictionary of English Usage*, however, says that âif you observe the distinction between healthful and healthy you are absolutely correct, and in the minority. If you ignore the distinction you are absolutely correct, and in the majority.â
âHealthy,â meanwhile, is also used to mean “largeâ or âvigorous,â as in “she had a healthy helping of stuffing,â or âthat certainly was a healthy tackleââusage that has moved from nonstandard to colloquial to informal and, finally, to good health.
Note, though, that it would be sick to use âhealthfulâ to describe something that has good health, rather than something that promotes good health. English isnât always a two-way street.
Correction: This article’s sixth paragraph originally referred to a book entitled Websterâs Dictionary of English Usage, which does not actually exist. The correct title is Merriam-Websterâs Dictionary of English Usage. CJR regrets the error.
Merrill Perlman managed copy desks across the newsroom at the New York Times, where she worked for twenty-five years. Follow her on Twitter at @meperl.