good - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Inherited from Middle English good, from Old English gōd, from Proto-West Germanic *gōd, from Proto-Germanic *gōdaz (“good”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰedʰ- (“to unite, be associated, suit, fit”).

Related to gather and together, but not to god/God.

Eclipsed non-native Middle English bon, bone, boon, boun (“good”) borrowed from Old French bon (“good”), from Latin bonus (“good”).

Cognates

Cognate with Scots gude, guid (“good”), Yola gayde, gooude, gude (“good”), North Frisian goud, gud, guid, gur, gödj, gööd (“good”), Saterland Frisian goud (“good”), West Frisian goed (“good”), Alemannic German guet (“good”), Bavarian guad (“good”), Central Franconian gut, jot, jott (“good”), Cimbrian guat, guut (“good”), Dutch goed, goei (“good”), Dutch Low Saxon good (“good”), German gut (“good”), Limburgish good, gott (“good”), Low German god, goot, got, gued (“good”), Luxembourgish gutt (“good”), Mòcheno guat (“good”), Vilamovian güt (“good”), Yiddish גוט (gut, “good”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish god (“good”), Elfdalian guoð (“good”), Faroese, Icelandic góður (“good”), Gothic 𐌲𐍉𐌸𐍃 (gōþs, “good”), Vandalic *guths (“good”); also Albanian nge (“chance, leisure, opportunity, time”), Latvian gods (“honor”), Lithuanian guõdas (“nobleness, virtue; glory, honour”), Belarusian го́дны (hódny, “worthy”), Bulgarian го́ден (góden, “fit, suitable”), Czech hodný (“good, kind”), Polish godny, godzien (“dignified, worthy”), Russian го́дный (gódnyj, “fit, well-suited, good for; (coll.) good”), Ukrainian гі́дний (hídnyj, “deserving, worthy”), го́дний (hódnyj, “fit, well-suited, good for; (coll.) good”).

good (comparative better or (nonstandard, humorous) gooder, superlative best or (nonstandard, humorous) goodest)

  1. Of a person or an animal:
    1. Acting in the interest of what is beneficial, ethical, or moral.
      good intentions
      • c. 1525, The Example of Euyll Tongues, page a3 rectoː
        Yf ony man wolde begynne his synnes to reny / Or ony good people that fro vyce dyde refrayne / What so euer he were that to vertue wolde applye / But an yll tonge wyll all ouer throwe agayne
        If any man would begin to renounce his sins, / Or any good people who refrained from vice, / Whatsoever he who wished to apply himself to virtue might be, / Still an ill tongue would overthrow it all again.
    2. Competent or talented.
      a good swimmer
      • 1704, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached on Several Occasions, On the nature and measure of conscience:
        Flatter him it may, I confess, (as those are generally good at flattering who are good for nothing else,) but in the meantime the poor man is left under the fatal necessity of a needless delusion
      • 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/19/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
        Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house ; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something ; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.
      • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
        And Marsha says I am a good cook!
    3. Able to be depended on for the discharge of obligations incurred; of unimpaired credit; used with for.
      Can you lend me fifty dollars? You know I'm good for it.
    4. Well-behaved (especially of children or animals).
      Be good while your mother and I are out.
      Were you a good boy for the babysitter?
    5. (US) Satisfied or at ease; not requiring more.
      Would you like a glass of water? — I'm good.
      [Are] you good? — Yeah, I'm fine.
      Gimme another beer! — I think you're good.
    6. (colloquial, with with) Accepting of, OK with
      My mother said she's good with me being alone with my date as long as she's met them first.
      The soup is rather spicy. Are you good with that, or would you like something else?
    7. (archaic) Of high rank or birth.
  2. Of a capability:
    1. Useful for a particular purpose; functional.
      it’s a good watch; the flashlight batteries are still good
      • 1526, Herballː
        Against cough and scarceness of breath caused of cold take the drink that it hath been sodden in with Liquorice[,] or that the powder hath been sodden in with dry figs[,] for the same the electuary called dyacalamentum is good[,] and it is made thus.
      • 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
        Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, […]. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.
    2. Effective.
      a good worker
    3. (obsolete) Real; actual; serious.
      in good sooth
  3. Of a property or quality:
    1. Of food:
      1. Having a particularly pleasant taste.
        The food was very good.
      2. Being satisfying; meeting dietary requirements.
        Eat a good dinner so you will be ready for the big game tomorrow.
    2. Of food or other perishable products, still fit for use; not yet expired, stale, rotten, etc.
      The bread is still good.
    3. Valid, of worth, capable of being honoured.
      This coupon is good for a free doughnut.
    4. True, valid, of explanatory strength.
      This theory still holds good even if much higher temperatures are assumed.
      • 1966, K. Rothfels, Margaret Freeman, “The salivary gland chromosomes of three North American species of Twinnia (Diptera: Simuliidae)”, in Canadian Journal of Zoology, volume 44, number 5, →DOI:
        Twinnia biclavata differs from T. nova by inversion IS-1 and a nucleolar shift. Both are good species.
    5. Right, proper, as it should be.
      • 15th c., “[The Creation]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 6, lines 184–185:
        It is not good to be alone, / to walk here in this worthely wone, / In all this welthly wyn;
        It is not good to be alone / to walk here in this noble dwelling-place / in all this rich delight.
    6. Healthful.
      Exercise and a varied diet are good for you.
    7. Pleasant; enjoyable.
      We had a good time.
    8. Favorable.
      a good omen; good weather
      • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 361:
        Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. […] Next day she […] tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head. Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and perhaps had spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.
    9. Unblemished; honourable.
      a person's good name
    10. Beneficial; worthwhile.
      a good job
    11. Adequate; sufficient; not fallacious.
  4. (colloquial, when with and) Very, extremely. See good and.
    The soup is good and hot.
  5. (colloquial) Ready.
    I'm good when you are.
  6. Holy (especially when capitalized) .
  7. Of a quantity:
    1. Reasonable in amount.
      all in good time
    2. Large in amount or size.
      a good while longer
      a good number of seeds
      A good part of his day was spent shopping.
      It will be a good while longer until he's done.
      He's had a good amount of troubles, he has.
      • 1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter III, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC:
        The big houses, and there are a good many of them, lie for the most part in what may be called by courtesy the valleys. You catch a glimpse of them sometimes at a little distance from the [railway] line, which seems to have shown some ingenuity in avoiding them, […].
    3. Full; entire; at least as much as.
      This hill will take a good hour and a half to climb.
      The car was a good ten miles away.
      • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16:
        Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.
  8. (stressed form) Special, best, favorite.
    No, not that one. That's my good shirt I only wear for special occasions.
    Shoot! A tear. And these are my good jeans.

acting in the interest of good; ethical good intentions

useful for a particular purpose

of food, edible; not stale or rotten

of food, having a particularly pleasant taste

healthful

pleasant; enjoyable

of people, competent or talented

effective

favorable

beneficial; worthwhile

Translations to be checked

good

  1. That is good; an elliptical exclamation of satisfaction or commendation.
    Good! I can leave now.

exclamation of satisfaction

Inherited from Middle English goode (“good, well”, adverb), from the adjective. Compare Dutch goed (“good, well”, adverb), German gut (“good, well”, adverb), Danish godt (“good, well”, adverb), Swedish gott (“good, well”, adverb), all from the adjective.

good (comparative better, superlative best)

  1. (informal, sometimes proscribed) Well; satisfactorily or thoroughly.
    When you're cleaning these racks, you've got to get in there good, because the quality system specifies it.
    The boy done good. (did well)
    This recipe calls for a good-sized chunk of chocolate.
    • 1906, Zane Grey, The Spirit of the Border: A Romance of the Early Settlers in the Ohio Valley:
      If Silvertip refuses to give you the horse, grab him before he can draw a weapon, and beat him good. You're big enough to do it.
    • 1970, Troy Conway, The Cunning Linguist, London: Flamingo Books, page 66:
      I kept my eyes peeled for signs of pursuit. There was none, unless I was being fooled very good.
    • 1972, Harry Chapin, “A Better Place to Be”, in Sniper and Other Love Songs:
      She said, "I don't want to bother you / Consider it's understood / I know I'm not no beauty queen / But I sure can listen good."
    • 1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Jules (Samuel L. Jackson):
      Marsellus fucked him up good. Word 'round the campfire is it was on account of Marsellus Wallace's wife.
    • 2007 April 19, Jimmy Wales, “Jimmy Wales on the User-Generated Generation”, Fresh Air, WHYY, Pennsylvania [1]
      The one thing that we can't do_...is throw out the baby with the bathwater...._ We know our process works pretty darn good and, uh, it’s really sparked this amazing phenomenon of this_..._high-quality website.
    • 2010, Monte Dwyer, Red in the Centre: Through a Crooked Lens, Monyer Pty Ltd, page 14:
      "They're travellin' good now. We'll leave them be."

The Germanic cognates (listed in the Etymology) illustrate a null morpheme difference from the adjective that is fully standard in those languages, as it would be in modern English if not for a widespread prescriptive misapprehension. The idea that adverbs in English cannot or should not have a null morpheme difference from the adjective is a widespread notion that bars good (adv) and bad (adv) from formal use even though they are ubiquitous in informal use. It also sometimes drives people to inject -ly hypercorrectively; for example, thusly is stated by most usage guides to be a needless replacement of thus.

Inherited from Middle English good, god, from Old English gōd (“a good thing, advantage, benefit, gift; good, goodness, welfare; virtue, ability, doughtiness; goods, property, wealth”), from Proto-Germanic *gōdą (“goods, belongings”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰedʰ-, *gʰodʰ- (“to unite, be associated, suit”). Compare German Gut (“item of merchandise; estate; property”).

good (countable and uncountable, plural goods)

  1. (uncountable) The forces or behaviours that are the enemy of evil. Usually consists of helping others and general benevolence.
    Antonyms: bad, evil
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them. Soft heartedness caused more harm than good.
    • 2025 August 27, Dana Suskind, “AI Engineers Need Their Own Hippocratic Oath. Here’s What It Should Say”, in TIME‎[2]:
      AI engineers hold in their hands the power to do extraordinary good—closing gaps in education, unlocking medical breakthroughs, accelerating climate solutions—or, if they lose sight of the people their creations serve, to cause deep harm.
  2. (countable) A result that is positive in the view of the speaker.
    Antonym: bad
  3. (uncountable) The abstract instantiation of goodness; that which possesses desirable qualities, promotes success, welfare, or happiness, is serviceable, fit, excellent, kind, benevolent, etc.
    The best is the enemy of the good.
    He is an influence for good on those girls.
    • 1788, John Jay, The Federalist Papers, number 64:
      […] the government must be a weak one indeed, if it should forget that the good of the whole can only be promoted by advancing the good of each of the parts or members which compose the whole.
  4. (countable, usually in the plural) An item of merchandise.
    Coordinate term: service
  5. (countable, usually in the plural) An article of personal property (as opposed to real property).

the forces of good

good result

item of merchandise

Inherited from Middle English goden, godien, from Old English gōdian (“to improve, get better; make better; endow, enrich”), from Proto-West Germanic *gōdōn (“to make better, improve”), from Proto-Germanic *gōdaz (“good, favorable”).

good (third-person singular simple present goods, present participle gooding, simple past and past participle gooded) (now chiefly dialectal)

  1. (intransitive) To thrive; fatten; prosper; improve.
  2. (transitive) To make good; turn to good; improve.
  3. (intransitive) To make improvements or repairs.
  4. (intransitive) To benefit; gain.
  5. (transitive) To do good to (someone); benefit; cause to improve or gain.
  6. (transitive) To satisfy; indulge; gratify.
  7. (reflexive) To flatter; congratulate oneself; anticipate.

From English dialectal, from Middle English *goden, of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish göda (“to fatten, fertilise, battle”), Danish gøde (“to fertilise, battle”), ultimately from the adjective. See above.

good (third-person singular simple present goods, present participle gooding, simple past and past participle gooded)

  1. (transitive, now chiefly dialectal, Scotland) To furnish with dung; manure; fatten with manure; fertilise.
    • April 5 1628, Bishop Joseph Hall, The Blessings, Sins, and Judgments of God's Vineyard
      Nature was like itself , in it , in the world : God hath taken it in from the barren downs , and gooded it : his choice did not find , but make it thus

Coined in reference to the phrase the only good nigger is a dead nigger, a popular saying among white supremacists.

good (not comparable)

  1. (Internet slang, offensive, ethnic slur) Of a black person, dead or killed.
    • 2008 October 17, Anthony X (Janet Arvizo is a disgusting liar, Tom Sneddon is a disgusting racist http://asb-comm-logic.com, “TNB: 36-year-old African American shot to death”, in alt.true-crime‎[3] (Usenet):
      Another evil nigger made good. I love a good news story.
    • 2017 March 21, Rick Mathers, “6 Shitskin Boogs Shot At 'A Boogie With The Hoodie' Concert”, in alt.checkmate‎[4] (Usenet):
      Sow Sheeboon Savannah Jeanne Walker of Louisville, KY was made good in a shooting at cRap show called 'A Boogie With The Hoodie' Saturday night at the Tim Faulkner Art Gallery. 5 other niggers were shot and are expected to survive. No suspooks have been captured.
    • 2017 November 7, Casa de los peregrinos, “Groid rage motorist chimps out on motorist”, in soc.culture.african.american‎[5] (Usenet):
      The usual nigger nonsense from da fambly. He beez a good daddy to his keeids (I wonder how many more keeids this useless nigger has that the media didn't tell us about.) He wuz juss mindin' his own bidness when da popo got in da way. He din do nuffins. The BLM niggers and their lovers will be chimping out for sure. LEO's already have a tough job as it is, dealing with niggers has to be the worst part of the job. I'm glad that coon was made good.
    • 2023 May 4, JeSSe, “White US Marine kills black felon in self defense - BLM/antifa threaten riots if he is not arrested and found guilty”, in uk.current-events.terrorism‎[6] (Usenet):
      Bolsheviks have got to be in heat over this, a nigger with well over 40 arrests including violent assault is properly made good for threatening people on the subway, will the law abiding law defending hero be thrown under the bus to appease blacks [again]?

Romanisation of 嗗 (gut4, gut6, gut2), influenced by spelling of English good. Not related to English good semantically.

good (Hong Kong Cantonese)

  1. nonstandard form of 嗗 (“sound of gulp”)

good

  1. nonstandard form of 嗗 (“to gulp”)

Inherited from Middle Dutch goet.

good (comparative baeter, superlative bès, predicative superlative 't bès)

  1. good

good

  1. alternative form of goot

Inherited from Old English gōd, from Proto-West Germanic *gōd, from Proto-Germanic *gōdaz.

good (plural and weak singular gode, comparative bettre, superlative best)

  1. good (of good quality or behaviour)
  2. good (morally right or righteous)
  3. advantageous, wealthy, profitable, useful
  4. large; of a great size or quantity
  5. having a great degree or extent
  6. (of food) tasting pleasant