different between pillage vs vex

English

Etymology

From Old French pillage, from piller (“plunder”), from an unattested meaning of Late Latin pili?, probably a figurative use of Latin pil? (“I remove (hair)”), from pilus (“hair”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?l.?d?/, /?p?l.?d?/
• Rhymes: -?l?d?

Verb

pillage (third-person singular simple present pillages, present participle pillaging, simple past and past participle pillaged)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To loot or plunder by force, especially in time of war.
   • 1911, Sabine Baring-Gould, Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe, Chapter VI: Cliff Castles—Continued,

     Archibald V. (1361-1397) was Count of Perigord. He was nominally under the lilies [France], but he pillaged indiscriminately in his county.

Translations

Noun

pillage (countable and uncountable, plural pillages)

1. The spoils of war.

2. The act of pillaging.
   • 2013, Zoë Marriage, Formal Peace and Informal War: Security and Development in Congo

     An employee at a brewery in Kinshasa rated the aftermath as more catastrophic to the company than the direct violence: It was more the consequences of the pillages that hit Bracongo – the poverty of the people, our friends who buy beer.

Synonyms

• (spoils of war): See Thesaurus:booty

Translations

French

Etymology

piller +? -age

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pi.ja?/

Noun

pillage m (plural pillages)

1. pillage

Norman

Etymology

From Old French pillage.

Noun

pillage m (plural pillages)

1. (Jersey) looting

Related terms

• pilleux (“looter”)

Old French

Noun

pillage m (oblique plural pillages, nominative singular pillages, nominative plural pillage)

1. pillaging

Related terms

• piller

Descendants

• ? English: pillage

English

Etymology

From Middle English vexen, from Old French vexer, from Latin v?x?re (“disturb, agitate, annoy”). Displaced native Middle English grillen (“to vex, annoy”) from Old English grillan. Doublet of quake.

Pronunciation

• enPR: v?ks, IPA^(key): /v?ks/
• Rhymes: -?ks

Verb

vex (third-person singular simple present vexes, present participle vexing, simple past and past participle vexed or (archaic) vext)

1. (transitive, now rare) To trouble aggressively, to harass.
2. (transitive) To annoy, irritate.

3. (transitive) To cause (mental) suffering to; to distress.
4. (transitive, rare) To twist, to weave.

   • some English wool, vexed in a Belgian loom

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To be irritated; to fret.
   • 1613, George Chapman, The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois

     Wake when thou would'st wake, fear nought, vex for nought

6. (transitive) To toss back and forth; to agitate; to disquiet.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:vex.

Synonyms

• (to annoy): agitate, irk, irritate
• (to cause mental suffering): afflict, grame, torment

Derived terms

Related terms

• quake
• vexatious

Translations

Noun

vex (plural vexes)

1. (Scotland, obsolete) A trouble.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “vex”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

vex

1. Alternative form of wax (“wax”)

Etymology 2

Verb

vex

1. Alternative form of vexen