different between fragile vs ill

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French fragile, from Latin fragilis, formed on frag-, the root of frangere (“to break”). Cognate fraction, fracture and doublet of frail.

Pronunciation

• (UK, General Australian, Canada) IPA^(key): /?f?æd?a?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?f?æd??l/
• Rhymes: -æd??l

Adjective

fragile (comparative fragiler or more fragile, superlative fragilest or most fragile)

1. Easily broken or destroyed, and thus often of subtle or intricate structure.

   The chemist synthesizes a fragile molecule.

   The UN tries to maintain the fragile peace process in the region.

   He is a very fragile person and gets easily depressed.

2. (Britain) Feeling weak or easily disturbed as a result of illness.

Synonyms

• friable
• breakly
• breakable
• destroyable
• destructible
• See also Thesaurus:fragile

Antonyms

• durable
• unbreakable
• undestroyable
• indestructible
• antifragile

Derived terms

• fragilely

Related terms

• fractal
• fraction
• fractional
• fracture
• fragility
• frail
• frailty
• frangible

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fragilis. Doublet of frêle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?a.?il/
• Homophone: fragiles

Adjective

fragile (plural fragiles)

1. fragile

Related terms

• fragiliser
• fragilité

Further reading

• “fragile” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• giflera

German

Adjective

fragile

1. inflection of fragil:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Etymology

From Latin fragilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fra.d??i.le/
• Hyphenation: frà?gi?le

Adjective

fragile (plural fragili)

1. fragile

Derived terms

• fragilmente
• infragilire

Related terms

• frale
• fragilità

Further reading

• fragile in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Adjective

fragile

1. nominative neuter singular of fragilis
2. accusative neuter singular of fragilis
3. vocative neuter singular of fragilis

English

Etymology

From Middle English ille (“evil; wicked”), from Old Norse illr (adj), illa (adverb), ilt (noun) (whence Icelandic illur, Norwegian ille, Danish ilde), from Proto-Germanic *ilhilaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h?elk- (whence Latin ulcus (“sore”), Ancient Greek ????? (hélkos, “wound, ulcer”), Sanskrit ?????? (ár?as, “hemorrhoids”) (whence Hindi ???? (ar?)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l/
• Rhymes: -?l

Adjective

ill (comparative worse or iller or more ill, superlative worst or illest or most ill)

1. (obsolete) Evil; wicked (of people). [13th-19th c.]
   • 1709, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preached before the Sons of the Clergy, at their Anniversary-Meeting, in the Church of St. Paul (December 6, 1709)

     St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.

   • A man who is conscious of having an ill character, cannot justly be angry with those who neglect and slight him.

2. (archaic) Morally reprehensible (of behaviour etc.); blameworthy. [from 13th c.]
   • 1999, George RR Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam 2011, p. 2:

     ‘Go bring her. It is ill to keep a lady waiting.’

3. Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel. [from 14th c.]

4. Unpropitious, unkind, faulty, not up to reasonable standard.
5. Unwell in terms of health or physical condition; sick. [from 15th c.]

   Mentally ill people.

6. Having an urge to vomit. [from 20th c.]

7. (hip-hop slang) Sublime, with the connotation of being so in a singularly creative way.
   • 1986, Beastie Boys, License to Ill
   • 1994, Biggie Smalls, The What

     Biggie Smalls is the illest / Your style is played out, like Arnold wonderin "Whatchu talkin bout, Willis?"

8. (slang) Extremely bad (bad enough to make one ill). Generally used indirectly with to be.

9. (dated) Unwise; not a good idea.
   • 1672, George Swinnock, The Incomparableness of God

     Oh that when the devil and flesh entice the sinner to sport with and make a mock of sin, Prov. x. 23, he would but consider, it is ill jesting with edged tools, it is ill jesting with unquenchable burnings; […]

   • 1914, Indian Ink (volume 1, page 32)

     They arrested everybody—and it is ill to resist a drunken Tommy with a loaded rifle!

Usage notes

• The comparative worse and superlative worst are the standard forms. The forms iller and illest are also used in American English, but are less than a quarter as frequent as "more" and "most" forms. The forms iller, illest are quite common in the slang sense "sublime".

Synonyms

• (suffering from a disease): diseased, poorly (UK), sick, under the weather (informal), unwell
• (having an urge to vomit): disgusted, nauseated, nauseous, sick, sickened
• (bad): bad, mal-
• (in hip-hop slang: sublime): dope
• See also Thesaurus:diseased

Antonyms

• (suffering from a disease): fine, hale, healthy, in good health, well
• (bad): good
• (in hip-hop slang: sublime): wack

Derived terms

Translations

References

Adverb

ill (comparative worse or more ill, superlative worst or most ill)

1. Not well; imperfectly, badly
   • 1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House

     Within, I found it, as I had expected, transcendently dismal. The slowly changing shadows waved on it from the heavy trees, were doleful in the last degree; the house was ill-placed, ill-built, ill-planned, and ill-fitted.

   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 541:

     His inflexibility and blindness ill become a leader, for a leader must temper justice with mercy.

   • 2006, Julia Borossa (translator), Monique Canto-Sperber (quoted author), in Libération, 2002 February 2, quoted in Élisabeth Badinter (quoting author), Dead End Feminism, Polity, ?ISBN, page 40:

     Is it because this supposes an undifferentiated violence towards others and oneself that I could ill imagine in a woman?

Synonyms

• illy

Antonyms

• well

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

ill (countable and uncountable, plural ills)

1. (often pluralized) Trouble; distress; misfortune; adversity.

2. Harm or injury.

3. Evil; moral wrongfulness.
4. A physical ailment; an illness.

5. (US, slang, uncountable) PCP, phencyclidine.

Derived terms

• for good or ill

Translations

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.

Further reading

• ill at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Lil, li'l, li'l', lil

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse illr, from Proto-Germanic *ilhilaz. Along English ill, probably cognate with Irish olc.

Adjective

ill (masculine and feminine ill, neuter ilt, definite singular and plural ille, comparative illare, superlative indefinite illast, superlative definite illaste)

1. bad
2. sore
3. angry, wroth
4. (in compounds) strong, very

Related terms

• illa, ille (verb)
• ille (adverb)

References

• “ill” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Scots

Adjective

ill (comparative waur, superlative warst)

1. ill
2. bad, evil, wicked
3. harsh, severe
4. profane
5. difficult, troublesome
6. awkward, unskilled

Adverb

ill (comparative waur, superlative warst)

1. ill
2. badly, evilly, wickedly
3. harshly, severely
4. profanely
5. with difficulty
6. awkwardly, inexpertly

Noun

ill (plural ills)

1. ill
2. ill will, malice

Westrobothnian

Alternative forms

• il

Etymology

From Old Norse illr, from Proto-Germanic *ilhilaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h?elk-.

Adjective

ill (neuter illt)

1. evil, bad

   Han iles onga

   The evil one's kids

   Ja har illt i fotom

   I have pain in my feet.

   Han har illt uti säg

   He is concerned.

   Han har illt ini säg

   He has stomach pains.

   Ji hav illt hóvudä

   I have a headache.

Derived terms

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English willen, from Old English willan, from Proto-West Germanic *willjan.

Verb

ill

1. will

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN