Merriam-Webster - Healthy vs. Healthful lyrics

Welcome to Ask the Editor. I'm Emily Brewster, an Associate Editor at Merriam-Webster. Do you like healthy food? Or do you think green vegetables only qualify as healthful? Those of you in the latter camp believe that "healthful" means "good for your health"—which is true—and that "healthy" means "having or showing good health"—which is also true—and that one word can never be used for the other—which, well, isn't true. Let's look at the histories of these two words. "Healthful" is older. It dates to the late 14th century, when it was used exclusively to mean "conducive to health" or "good for you." Within about 150 years, though, "healthful" was also being used to mean "having or showing good health." Around the same time this alternate meaning of "healthful" developed, in the mid-1500s, the word "healthy" came on the scene, and it was used with both meanings that "healthful" had. Since then it's all been pretty much downhill for "healthful." The word is now only rarely used as a synonym for "well," and it's not very frequently used to mean "good for you," either. Since its introduction more than 450 years ago, "healthy" has been the more common word for both meanings. For a long time, it seems no one cared about which word people used. The distinction between "healthful" and "healthy" was first prescribed as a rule in the 1880s. The rule, though, never had much of an impact on actual usage. In American English "healthy" is far more common than "healthful," and in British English "healthful" is downright rare. You can of course observe the distinction if you want to and call vegetables "healthful" and your well friends "healthy." You'll be correct if you do—and in the minority. You can also ignore the distinction and say that both vegetables and well people are "healthy." You'll also be correct—and in the majority. It's up to you. For more on this and other usage issues, see Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage and visit us again soon at merriam-webster.com.