Answer: What is the difference between "ill" and "sick"?

[chomiji]

An anonymous requester asked: What is the difference between "ill" and "sick"??

(With examples from Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield, Saiyuki, and the Old Kingdom ("Abhorsen") series by Garth Nix.)

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People seem to use ill and sick interchangeably. But really, whether we're conscious of it or not, we're often making a subtle distinction. Generally, ill sounds a bit more formal and perhaps a bit more serious than sick:

Mr. Simpson didn't pretend that he hadn't noticed that Petrova had been crying. "That's exactly what I want to do when I've been sick with influenza," he said. "Here, have my handkerchief."

Pauline looked around to see whether Posy was within earshot. "You know, Madame is actually much more seriously ill than Posy thinks she is," she said, quietly.

The origins of the two words are actually quite different. Webster's etymology shows that sick has always implied that the person or creature it describes has some sort of disease or other physical malady. It's also often synonymous with "queasy" or "nauseated" ("sick to my stomach"), especially in British usage. In fact, "to be sick" can be used to mean "to vomit":

"Goku, I'm not surprised you're feeling sick, if you finished Sanzo's ramen as well as your own," said Hakkai. "Mayonnaise doesn't keep well at room temperature, especially when it's been exposed to hot soup."

Goku's usually ruddy face had gone greenish. "I think I'm gonna be sick," he mumbled, his hands over his mouth.

You'll notice that you could use ill in each of these two cases, but sick is a bit more common, especially in the casual U.S. English used for translating the dialog in Saiyuki.

The use of sick to imply macabre or morbid - especially with regard to humor - comes from the idea that it's the product of an unsound mind, according to Webster's. There's similar logic at work in the use of sick with "of" to mean "tired of" or "bored of," but in that case, it's the current situation that's made the person in question feel that his or her mind has been sickened:

Sanzo pulled his gun from his sleeve and pointed it at the back seat. "Both of you shut up back there! I'm sick of that goddamned bickering!"

"You mean Sanzo is gonna order for all of us?" asked Gojyo, incredulously. "Is this some kinda sick joke? I don't want mayonnaise on my beef tataki!"

Using ill in these instances just wouldn't work!

When we check the pedigree of ill, we find that it started out as a much more general term that meant "bad" - or worse. It can still be used that way:

Mogget cringed as the Disreputable Dog licked his back. "Get away!" he hissed, in a voice fierce with ill temper.

"The Dead never wish the living anything but ill," said Sabriel somberly.

Here, sick isn't an alternative at all.

To sum up: if you're trying to use the word in reference to actual physical suffering from disease or the like, your choice of ill versus sick will depend on the tone or voice you're trying to use. Both words can be used to accurately describe a person in such a condition, so you will need to use your mind's ear to select the one that feel natural for your story's point of view and details. You can always refer back to the examples above when you're trying to decide between the two.

Comments

[campylobacter.livejournal.com]

Great explanation of the subtle differences!

However, I was thrown for a loop when I first heard "sick" used as slang for "cool" by one of my friends: "Yo, that party was SICK! We had the best time ever." (I live in Southern California.)