different between sick vs ail

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: s?k, IPA^(key): /s?k/
• Rhymes: -?k
• Homophones: sic, Sikh

Etymology 1

From Middle English sik, sike, seek, seke, seok, from Old English s?oc (“sick, ill”), from Proto-West Germanic *seuk, from Proto-Germanic *seukaz (compare West Frisian siik, Dutch ziek, German siech, Norwegian Bokmål syk, Norwegian Nynorsk sjuk), from Proto-Indo-European *sewg- (“to be troubled or grieved”); compare Middle Irish socht (“silence, depression”), Old Armenian ???????? (hiwcanim, “I am weakening”).

Adjective

sick (comparative sicker, superlative sickest)

1. (more common in the US) In poor health; ill.

   Synonyms: ill, not well, poorly, sickly, unwell

   Antonyms: fit, healthy, well

2. Having an urge to vomit.

   Synonym: nauseated

   • 1913, The Texas criminal reports, page 8:

     In the meantime the old man had gotten up and gone out in the yard and began to vomit. Henry said I believe I feel sick and got up and went out. He went out one door and his father went out the other one. I did not think there was anything wrong with the coffee and I asked my wife to pour this out […]

   • 1918, Cecil Day Lewis, The Whispering Roots, Jonathan Cape, page 140:

     Q. Didn't he complain he was sick before he commenced to vomit?

     A. He did, just before he said, to me, “I feel sick,” I asked him if he wanted to throw up and he said yes.

   • 1958, Gene D'Olive, Chiara, Signet Book

     […] trying hard to cry. Crying's good. Crying teaches him to breathe. But I wish he weren't crying from hunger. I feel dizzy. I sit down and feel a little sick. Maybe I'll vomit, too. No, I never vomit. I feel sick, but I won't vomit. I never vomit.

   • 2013, Cheryl Rainfield, Stained, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (?ISBN), page 38:

     I feel sick, like I might vomit, and I'm more tired than I can ever remember feeling.

3. (colloquial) Mentally unstable, disturbed.

   Synonyms: disturbed, twisted, warped

4. (colloquial) In bad taste.

5. Tired of or annoyed by something.
6. (slang) Very good, excellent, awesome, badass.

   Synonyms: rad, wicked

   Antonyms: crap, naff, uncool

7. In poor condition.

8. (agriculture) Failing to sustain adequate harvests of crop, usually specified.

Synonyms

• (in poor health): See also Thesaurus:diseased
• (having an urge to vomit): See also Thesaurus:nauseated
• (slang: excellent): See also Thesaurus:excellent

Derived terms

Descendants

• ?? Navajo: sxih

Translations

Noun

sick (uncountable)

1. (Britain, Australia, colloquial) Vomit.
2. (Britain, colloquial) (especially in the phrases on the sick and on long-term sick) Any of various current or former benefits or allowances paid by the Government to support the sick, disabled or incapacitated

Synonyms

• (vomit): See Thesaurus:vomit

Translations

Verb

sick (third-person singular simple present sicks, present participle sicking, simple past and past participle sicked)

1. (colloquial) To vomit.

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To fall sick; to sicken.
   • circa 1598, William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, part 2:

     Our great-grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died.

Etymology 2

Variant of sic, itself an alteration of seek.

Verb

sick (third-person singular simple present sicks, present participle sicking, simple past and past participle sicked)

1. (rare) Alternative spelling of sic
   • 1920, James Oliver Curwood, "Back to God's Country"

     "Wapi," she almost screamed, "go back! Sick 'em, Wapi—sick 'em—sick 'em—sick 'em!"

   • 1938, Eugene Gay-Tifft, translator, The Saga of Frank Dover by Johannes Buchholtz, 2005 Kessinger Publishing edition, ?ISBN, page 125,

     When we were at work swabbing the deck, necessarily barelegged, Pelle would sick the dog on us; and it was an endless source of pleasure to him when the dog succeeded in fastening its teeth in our legs and making the blood run down our ankles.

   • 1957, J. D. Salinger, "Zooey", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey, 1991 LB Books edition, page 154,

     "...is just something God sicks on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world."

   • 2001 (publication date), Anna Heilman, Never Far Away: The Auschwitz Chronicles of Anna Heilman, University of Calgary Press, ?ISBN, page 82,

     Now they find a new entertainment: they sick the dog on us.

Anagrams

• CKIs

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /e?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l
• Homophone: ale

Etymology 1

From Middle English eilen, from Old English e?lan, e?lian (“to trouble, afflict”), cognate with Gothic ???????????????????????? (agljan, “to distress”).

Verb

ail (third-person singular simple present ails, present participle ailing, simple past and past participle ailed)

1. (transitive) To cause to suffer; to trouble, afflict. (Now chiefly in interrogative or indefinite constructions.)

   • What aileth thee, Hagar?

   • 2011, "Connubial bliss in America", The Economist:

     Not content with having in 1996 put a Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) on the statue book, Congress has now begun to hold hearings on a Respect for Marriage Act. Defended, respected: what could possibly ail marriage in America?

2. (intransitive) To be ill; to suffer; to be troubled.
   • 1740, Samuel Richardson, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded

     When he ails ever so little […] he is so peevish.

Quotations

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

Translations

Noun

ail (plural ails)

1. (obsolete) An ailment; trouble; illness.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English eyle, eile, from Old English e?le (“hideous, loathsome, hateful, horrid, troublesome, grievous, painful”). Cognate with Gothic ???????????????????? (aglus, “hard, difficult”).

Adjective

ail (comparative ailer or more ail, superlative ailest or most ail)

1. (obsolete) Painful; troublesome.

Etymology 3

From Middle English eile, eyle, ei?le, from Old English e?l (“an ail; awn; beard of barley; mote”), from Proto-Germanic *agil? (“awn”). Cognate with German Achel, Egel, Ägel.

Alternative forms

• ile

Noun

ail (plural ails)

1. The awn of barley or other types of corn.

Anagrams

• -ial, Ali, IAL, LIA, Lai, ali-, lai

Dalmatian

Alternative forms

• alj

Etymology

From Latin allium.

Noun

ail

1. garlic

French

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin allium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aj/
• Homophones: aïe, aille, ailles, aillent, ails

Noun

ail m (plural ails or aulx)

1. garlic

Derived terms

• alliacé
• ailler

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• lai, lia

Irish

Alternative forms

• oil

Etymology

From Old Irish ail (“boulder, rock”), from Proto-Celtic *?ales-, from Proto-Indo-European *pelis-, *pels- (“stone”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /al?/

Noun

ail f (genitive singular aileach, nominative plural aileacha or ailche)

1. stone, rock

Declension

• Archaic plural: ailche

Derived terms

• ail leachta, ail in úir (“headstone, monument”)

Related terms

• aill
• ailt

Mutation

References

Further reading

• "ail" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019) , “1 ail”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• “ail” in Foclóir Gae?ilge agus Béarla, Irish Texts Society, 2nd ed., 1927, by Patrick S. Dinneen.
• Finck, F. N. (1899), Die araner mundart, Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, vol. II, p. 22.

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

ail

1. Alternative form of ale (“beer”)

Etymology 2

Noun

ail

1. Alternative form of hayle (“hail”)

Norman

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin allium.

Noun

ail m (uncountable)

1. (Jersey) garlic

Old Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /al?/

Verb

·ail

1. third-person singular present indicative conjunct of ailid

Mutation

Welsh

Alternative forms

• 2il

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *?l, from Proto-Celtic *alyos, from Proto-Indo-European *h?élyos (“other”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ai?l/

Adjective

ail (feminine singular ail, plural ail, not comparable) (precedes the noun, triggers soft mutation of all nouns)

1. second (ordinal number)

Derived terms

• ail- (“re-”), eil- (“re-”)
• eiliad (“a second”)

Mutation