Etymologically
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sick

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sik, sek,[2][3] inherited from Old English sēoc (“ill, diseased, weak; corrupt; troubled”),[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *seukaz,[4][2] the general Germanic word, which is of uncertain origin.[4][5] It is cognate with Old Frisian siāk, Old Saxon siok, Dutch ziek, German siech, Old Norse sjúkr and Gothic siuks;[4][2] in German and Dutch it was displaced by krank.[4] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare Middle Irish socht “silence, depression” and Armenian forms,[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *seug- (“troubled, sad, sick”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ill, unwell: before 899, in Alfred's translation of Boethius,[2] and about 888 in the OED.[6] Old English sēoc also meant “feeble”, “corrupt” and “sad, troubled, deeply affected”.[4]

Semantic evolution

Sick was the usual English word for physical illness until ill arrived in the early Middle Ages, and it is still normal in the US;[7] in British English sick now usually means “inclined to vomit”, a restricted sense from 1614.[6][4] The sense “longing, pining” and “weary of something”, as in sick of it, arose in Middle English and the 16th century.[5][8] The spiritually or morally corrupt sense was already in Old English,[4] and sick joke, in bad taste, is by 1958.[4] Tsar Nicholas I's remark of 1853 made Turkey the sick man of Europe in the late 19th century.[7][6] In drug slang, an addict craving a dose is sick from 1951.[6] The noun “vomit” is colloquial British from 1957–59.[9][4] Sicken is from about 1200, sickly from before 1375 and sick bay from 1813.[2]

Timeline

  • before 899 – ill, unwell.[2]
  • c. 1200 – sicken.[2]
  • before 1375 – sickly.[2]
  • 1614 – nauseated.[6]
  • 1813 – sick bay.[2]
  • 1853 – the sick man of Europe.[6]
  • 1951 – of an addict, craving a drug.[6]
  • 1958 – sick joke.[4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Suffering from an illness; ill.
  2. Feeling that one is about to vomit; nauseated.
  3. Mentally ill; morbid or in bad taste: a sick joke.
  4. Deeply distressed, disgusted or weary: sick of waiting.
  5. Longing, pining: sick for home.

Noun

  1. the sick: Sick people.
  2. (British, informal) Vomit.

Word family

  • sickly

Usage notes

A separate verb sick or sic, “to set a dog on someone” (sick him!), is a dialect variant of seek from 1845.[4][10]

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. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press