ailment

Etymology

It is formed from English ail + -ment.^[2][3][4][5] The verb is from Middle English eilen, from Old English eglan (“to trouble, plague, afflict”),^[3][6][7] itself from egle (“troublesome, painful”).^[6][8][7] Barnhart and Etymonline bring these back to Proto-Germanic *azljaz,^[7][3] with the cognates Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (agljan, “to hurt, injure”) and 𐌰𐌲𐌻𐍃 (agls, “shameful”),^[2][3][8] and Etymonline traces them to Proto-Indo-European *agh- (“to be depressed, be afraid”),^[3] but Ayto calls the verb's history uncertain.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

An illness or disorder, usually a mild one: 1606, in S. Gardiner's Doomes-day Book.^[2][10] Etymonline's first date is 1706,^[3] and Dictionary.com's 1700–10.^[4]

Semantic evolution

English already had an older noun ail, recorded from 1225,^[2] which Wright still found for an illness in Hertfordshire, Hampshire and Scotland.^[11] The longer noun was used figuratively for something like a disorder from 1679.^[2] It became a mass noun for ill health in 1708, a use now somewhat rare.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as pain or disease and quoted Granville's "little ailments" alongside Swift.^[5] Etymonline, the OED and Collins all describe an ailment as generally minor,^[3][2][8] although Merriam-Webster Unabridged includes chronic disease in its definition.^[10]

Timeline

• 1606 – an illness or disorder, usually a mild one.^[2][10]
• 1679 – figuratively, something comparable to a mild disorder.^[2]
• 1708 – as a mass noun, ill health, indisposition.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An illness or disorder, usually a slight or lasting one: The old sailor had a long list of ailments.^[8][2][10]
2. Something compared to a mild illness: the ailments of the local economy.^[2]
3. (somewhat rare) The state of being unwell; poor health.^[2]

Related words

• ail

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)