Destructive means causing great damage. A destructive storm, destructive criticism, destructive to health.
It is used of behaviour as much as of weather, and self-destructive describes harm a person does to themselves. Destructive criticism is the opposite of constructive: it tears down without offering anything to build with.
1adjectivedestructiveCausing great damage.
“It was the most destructive storm in years, tearing roofs off houses all along the coast.”
destructive is a quality of harm.
Latin destructivus comes from destruere, to tear down — de, down, plus struere, to build. Structure is a relative.
Proto-Indo-European
*strew-
Latin
dēstrūctīvus
Middle French
destructif
Middle English
destructyve
English, today
destructive
Built from
From Middle English destructyve, from Middle French destructif, from Latin dēstrūctīvus, from past participle of dēstruō (“to tear down, destroy”) + -īvus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA