different between vicious vs graceless

English

Alternative forms

• vitious (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English vicious, from Anglo-Norman vicious, (modern French vicieux), from Latin viti?sus, from vitium (“fault, vice”). Equivalent to vice +? -ous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v???s/
• Rhymes: -???s

Adjective

vicious (comparative viciouser or more vicious, superlative viciousest or most vicious)

1. Violent, destructive and cruel.
2. Savage and aggressive.
3. (archaic) Pertaining to vice; characterised by immorality or depravity.
   • , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.195:

     We may so seize on vertue, that if we embrace it with an over-greedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.

Synonyms

• scathy

Derived terms

• vicious circle

Related terms

• See vice#Related_terms

Translations

Middle English

Etymology

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman vicious, from Latin viti?sus; equivalent to vice +? -ous.

Alternative forms

• viciows, vicius, vycious, vycyus, vicyous, vecyous, vysyous, vycios, vycyous, vicyows

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /visi?u?s/, /vis?ju?s/, /?visjus/

Adjective

vicious (plural and weak singular viciouse)

1. Iniquitous, sinful, wicked (often in a way that causes harm or vice to/in others)
2. (rare) Lacking purity or cleanness; spoiled or defiled.
3. (rare) Inaccurate, modified, or debased; of substandard quality.
4. (rare) Injurious, dangerous; causing serious harm.

Descendants

• English: vicious
• Scots: veecious

References

• “vici?us, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-03-01.

Old French

Etymology

From Latin viti?sus;

Adjective

vicious m (oblique and nominative feminine singular viciouse)

1. vicious; malicious
2. defective; not capable of functioning

Declension

Descendants

• Middle English: vicious, viciows, vicius, vycious, vycyus, vicyous, vecyous, vysyous, vycios, vycyous, vicyows
  • English: vicious
  • Scots: veecious

References

• vicios on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

English

Etymology

From Middle English graceles; equivalent to grace +? -less.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???e?sl?s/

Adjective

graceless (comparative more graceless, superlative most graceless)

1. Without grace.
   • 1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sonnet XXXII, "Equal Troth," in The House of Life, [1]:

     Not by one measure mayst thou mete our love; / For how should I be loved as I love thee? — / I, graceless, joyless, lacking absolutely / All gifts that with thy queenship best behove; — [...]

   • 1972, Roland Barthes, "Toys" in Mythologies (1957), translated by Annette Lavers, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, p. 54,

     Current toys are made of a graceless material, the product of chemistry, not of nature.

   • 1995, Susan Sontag, "The Art of Fiction No. 143," Interview with Edward Hirsch published in The Paris Review, No. 137, Winter, 1995, p. 7,

     [Hirsch:] Do you mind being called an intellectual? [Sontag:] Well, one never likes to be called anything. [...] I suppose there will always be a presumption of graceless oddity—especially if one is a woman.

2. Lacking gracefulness
   • 1961, Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy, New York: Signet, p. 64,

     The boy sketched his roughhewn young contadino just in from the fields, naked except for his brache, kneeling to take off his clodhoppers; the flesh tones a sunburned amber, the figure clumsy, with graceless bumpkin muscles; but the face transfused with light as the young lad gazed up at John.

3. (archaic) Unfortunate.

Synonyms

• clumsy

Antonyms

• graceful

Derived terms

• gracelessly
• gracelessness