different between sick vs insane

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

Etymology

From Latin ?ns?nus (“unsound in mind; mad, insane”), from in- + s?nus (“sound, sane”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?se?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n

Adjective

insane (comparative more insane or insaner, superlative most insane or insanest)

1. Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; mad

   Synonyms: delirious, distracted

   • What is the cause of insanity? Nobody can answer such a sweeping question as that, but we know that certain diseases, such as syphilis, break down and destroy the brain cells and result in insanity. In fact, about one-half of all mental diseases can be attributed to such physical causes as brain lesions, alcohol, toxins, and injuries. But the other half—and this is the appalling part of the story—the other half of the people who go insane apparently have nothing organically wrong with their brain cells. In post-mortem examinations, when their brain tissues are studied under the highest-powered microscopes, they are found to be apparently just as healthy as yours and mine. Why do these people go insane?

2. Used by, or appropriated to, insane persons

3. Causing insanity or madness.
4. Characterized by insanity or the utmost folly; ridiculous; impractical

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:insane

Antonyms

• sane

Derived terms

• insanely

Related terms

• insanity

Translations

Further reading

• insane in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• insane in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• insane at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Annies, Sannie, Sienna, inanes, nenias, sannie, sienna

French

Etymology

From English insane

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.san/

Adjective

insane (plural insanes)

1. crazy
2. foolish

Further reading

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

Italian

Adjective

insane f pl

1. feminine plural of insano

Latin

Adjective

?ns?ne

1. vocative masculine singular of ?ns?nus

References

• insane in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• insane in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• insane in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette