Etymologically
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ill

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ille (“morally evil, malicious”),[2][3] borrowed from Old Norse illr (“evil, bad; hard, difficult; mean”),[4][2][5] a word of unknown origin.[4][5][6] It is not considered related to evil.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Morally evil, malicious: probably about 1150 in Barnhart,[2] about 1200 in Etymonline, where other 13th-century senses were “malevolent, hurtful, unfortunate, difficult”.[4] The adverb, harshly or wickedly, is from the late 12th century.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

“Incompetent, deficient” is from before 1325, in Cursor Mundi,[2] and “marked by evil intentions, harmful” from the mid-14th century.[4] The sense “sick, unwell” is from the mid-15th century, before 1460 in Barnhart,[4][2] probably from a use like the Old Norse idiom “it is bad to me”;[4] before then a person would be sick, as Americans still are.[7] The adverb did not shift to physical sickness as the adjective did.[4] It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, from the days of sailing ships, is from the mid-16th century.[7] Ill will is from before 1325, ill-gotten from before 1425, and ill-fated from 1710, in Pope.[2] The slang inverted sense “very good, cool” is from the 1980s.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1150 – morally evil.[2]
  • c. 1250 – noun, evil people.[2]
  • before 1325 – deficient, and ill will.[2]
  • mid-14th century – harmful.[4]
  • mid-15th century – sick.[4][2]
  • mid-16th century – an ill wind.[7]
  • 1710 – ill-fated.[2]
  • 1980s – slang, very good.[4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Not healthy; sick.
  2. Causing harm or suffering; bad: ill effects.
  3. Hostile or unfriendly: ill feeling.
  4. Unfavourable; unlucky: an ill omen.
  5. Not up to standard: ill manners.

Adverb

  1. Badly; not well.
  2. Scarcely or with difficulty: we can ill afford it.

Noun

  1. Evil; harm.
  2. Something that causes suffering; a misfortune: social ills.

Word family

  • illness
  • ill-being
  • ill-looking
  • ill-omened
  • ill-starred
  • ill-usage
  • ill-use
  • ill-wisher

Usage notes

Middle English set ill against well in words now obsolete, such as illfare (about 1300) and illcome (1570s), and in illth.[4]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press