1

I am trying to find alternative ways to refer to a very necessary thing or thing that someone must have. Can I use the word needful for this purpose? A person said that needful means the thing needs something but not that somebody needs it.

ses
  • 419
  • 2
    possible duplicate of What is wrong in "Please don't pluck the flowers" and other phrases used in the Indian subcontinent? – Mitch Jan 23 '12 at 20:33
  • 4
    'needful' is only recognized the way you use it in Indian English. It won't be understood in British, American, etc varieties of English. – Mitch Jan 23 '12 at 20:34
  • 2
    What is it that you aren't sure about after checking a dictionary for needful? – aedia λ Jan 23 '12 at 20:35
  • Yes I was not sure. My dictionary does not explain it well. I had suspicion only after having been using this word in conversation with one person from England. He did not understand me. (but I'm not from Idia, i just use run-en dictionay). In fact it is not clear for non-native English people. – ses Jan 23 '12 at 20:39
  • What is the "run-en dictionary"? Do you have a link? – Mitch Jan 23 '12 at 20:42
  • Link: http://lingvo.yandex.ru/needful/%D1%81%20%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE/ In russian I can say: "needful things" and any other varians as well using the same ru-equivalent, and there is not exmplanation about Indian or something. – ses Jan 23 '12 at 20:44
  • @ses: 1 - why would you use a -Russian- sourced dictionary, when there are so many native English sources (like Free dictionary, Merriam Websters, etc) just google 'definition needful' 2- doing that, I see there is no mention of IndE. Well, that's what ELU is for and there is an explanation at the duplicate entry link. – Mitch Jan 23 '12 at 21:02
  • @Mitch: Sorry, but needful is fine. Stephen King even wrote a book with the word in the title. And you can't tell me he's Indian, or that the millions of people who read the book or saw the movie couldn't understand what it meant. – Robusto Jan 23 '12 at 21:52
  • 5
    Just to clarify, needful as an adjective meaning "being in need" is uncontroversial in all dialects of English. However, needful as a noun meaning "something needed", while it does appear in all kinds of dictionaries, is not in common use outside of India. It is a very common usage in Indian English, however, and phrases like "please do the needful" are (in my experience) distinctive of speakers of Indian English. – nohat Jan 23 '12 at 22:09
  • 2
    @Robusto: what nohat said. That is, that's what I meant to say, or implied by the 'duplicate' link. Anyway, it very well could be that the OP is not interested in or aware of the IndE expression. But then the question doesn't give enough details or examples to tell. – Mitch Jan 23 '12 at 22:23
  • So, when I say "needful something/thing/soft/apples" then "needful" is not noun here, I'm guessing? If I would say 'needful soft', let's say, how you, could unerstand it? – ses Jan 23 '12 at 22:25
  • 1
    @ses, I think "needful" as an adjective is usually used to describe the thing that needs, not the thing that satisfies the need. Also, soft is already an adjective, maybe you mean softness? Interestingly, Merriam-Webster give "What's most needful now is patience" as an example of the word referring to the thing that satisfies the need, but I personally find that usage to be odd or at least archaic, and wouldn't recommend it. – nohat Jan 23 '12 at 22:39
  • @nohat: NOAD: 1 formal necessary; requisite: a further word was needful. No mention made of Indian dialect. – Robusto Jan 23 '12 at 23:34
  • @Robusto, I know dictionaries say that. I'm just saying that my experience and intuition as a native speaker is that this use of 'needful' is archaic or foreign. (Haven't all my comments on this issue clearly stated this is my personal opinion and experience?) NOAD does say "formal" which seems very similar to calling it archaic or not in common use (which is what I said previously), as formal usage tends to maintain older usages that have fallen out of informal use. – nohat Jan 24 '12 at 05:23
  • when I said soft i mean software, sorry for misunderstanding – ses Jan 24 '12 at 09:39
  • 1
    @nohat: Agree on archaic. I've said elsewhere that it has a rustic or rural feel to it as well. – Robusto Jan 24 '12 at 11:30

3 Answers3

4

I will only offer this data point: In 1991, best-selling author Stephen King published a novel (later made into a movie), called Needful Things. From the Wikipedia entry:

A new shop named "Needful Things" opens in the town of Castle Rock, Maine, sparking the curiosity of its citizens. The proprietor, Leland Gaunt, is a charming elderly gentleman who always seems to have an item in stock that is perfectly suited to any customer who comes through his door. ... It is revealed that Gaunt has traveled the world for centuries, selling useless junk that appears to be whatever the customers desire most.

It is obvious that the meaning of needful in this title is not "things that are needy" but "things that people think they really need" (i.e., that they find necessary and feel they simply have to possess).

Now, I will agree in advance that this usage is a bit formal and obscure, with an air of the rural or rustic about it, and that it is not in common usage. Nevertheless, the fact that a best-selling author can use the word in the title of a popular novel suggests that the word is not so obscure that people will not understand it.

There are plenty of little-used words that native speakers understand without using themselves. This brings up the question of what constitutes usage. If everyone understands a word, that seems to me to be evidence that the word is common even if it is rarely spoken. How often do we use words like "umbrage"? Rarely, if ever. Yet when they come up we know exactly what they mean. That feels to me like some form of currency.

Robusto
  • 151,571
2

Merriam-Webster lists two meanings for the adjective needful: being in need and necessary, requisite. It also lists two meanings for the noun needful: something needed or requisite and money.

The adjective meaning necessary is also listed in Macmillan (formal), OALD (old use) and Longman (old use). It is not listed at all in CALD, so it is not a commonly used word today.

-1

I just thought of clearing some air on 'please do the needful'......most of the people mentioned that the said phrase is used only by Indian English speakers but the fact is it comes from both British and American English well into the early 20th century.

The Oxford English Dictionary lists examples of usage from 1709 (Richard Steele in the Tatler), 1771 (Samuel Foote in Maid of Bath), 1821 (Maria Edgeworth in a letter), 1831 (Walter Scott in his journal), 1929 (I. Colvin in his Life of Dyer).

Rahul
  • 1
  • 1
    Welcome to EL&U. Please note that this is not a discussion forum, but a Q&A site. Your contribution would be better suited as a comment (such as this one) than an "Answer," though you will need to participate in other ways before you will be able to leave them. I encourage you to take the site tour and review the help center for additional guidance. – choster Feb 18 '15 at 02:12
  • Alternatively, you could improve the answer by quoting the actual entries from the OED, and perhaps indicating whether there are any more recent usages listed. – Dan Bron Feb 18 '15 at 18:50