Question: Why did the noun/verb “impact” turn into an adjective by adding “-ful” instead of “-ive”?
Answer: Both “impactive” and “impactful” can be found in standard dictionaries.
Merriam-Webster defines “impactive” as “having an impact or marked effect,” and “impactful” as “having a forceful impact: producing a marked impression.”
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the two adjectives were originally formed by adding the suffixes “-ive” and “-ful” to the noun “impact.”
The noun “impact” is believed to come from the Latin impactus, the participial stem of impingere (to impinge).
“Impactive” showed up nearly a century before “impactful” but the latter is now more popular, according to Google’s Ngram Viewer.
The earliest example of “impactive” is from an 1847 play, while the earliest example of “impactful” is from a 1939 magazine.
The suffix “-ive” is derived from a Latin suffix that formed adjectives from participial stems, while “-ful” is used to form adjectives with the sense of “full of” or “having or characterized by.”
English is a Germanic language with borrowings from non-Germanic languages like Latin, which explains the mix of suffixes with “impact.”
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