E 0018           ( TO ) AIL,  ILL

The words " to ail " and " ill " are of Germanic origin .

H 0471             ; ל י ח

H 0471            ל ה ח ;

Concept of root : grave illness

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

; ל י ח

ל ה ח

ghil;

ghalą

to suffer, pains (n);

to be(come) ill

Related English words

ail, ill

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ל י ח;

-

ל ה ח

ghil ;

-

ghalą

to suffer, pains (n);

to be(come) ill

gh y l

English

to ail ; ill

to ail

a y l ;

(i) l

 

 

Proto-Semitic *GHIL --- *ILL Proto-Germanic

 

 

The two-consonant combination "GH L" has given various roots with messages about human health. Naturally also in this case we find sounds, vowels, inserted between the two in order to obtain pronouncable entities, words. This time specifically in English we have found interesting links.

 

What lacks is the initial GH from Hebrew. We cannot suppose that this GH has been added later, because "GH L" carries the concept of human health. And we have no explanation of how it would have disappeared in this brief and isolated couple of English words.

 

The problem would become different by finding as well find a Hebrew root without the initial GH , moving in the field of "human health" . And that exists indeed : " ע ו ל , 'ul = health ".
It is found in Psalm 73:4 in the words "uwarią 'ulam" translated as "and healthy is their body". This is not all clear, as both elements may indicate the idea of health . Besides it is all positive and thus the opposite of "ailing" and "ill". Regretfully we do not have at the moment further proof, but in the rather far away past linguistic concepts sometimes were neutral , like "moving" without indicating if such moving was up or down, coming or going .

 

In this same way an old root "Aleph.O.L" (becoming later A.I.L) may have stood for "state of health" without specifying if that health was good or not . The double use in the two-word expression "uwarią ulam" may just have been necessary for that kind of reason . In Hebrew the root "A.O.L" when it became "A.I.L" had anyhow come to mean "strong", or "in good health".

 

 

Note:
  • English "ail" and "ill" are not given the same origin. "Ail" is considered to come, via Old English "eglan = to trouble, plague, afflict" from an Indo-European root "*agh", standing for "to be depressed, afraid". "Ill" seems to find no clear origin at all. We do not see a connection between fright and illness or ailing though . These are quite different concepts. And in a sister-language of English we find a verb that may give help. The verb "ijlen" in Dutch has two meanings. One is identical to German "Eilen" and means "to hurry". The other is only Dutch and refers specifically to the condition of somebody who is ill and has a high fever . "IJlen" is that uttering of more or less understandable sounds, but anyhow incoherent speech that is characteristic of gravely ill people with high fever. Usually this very specific verb is explained by linking it to an adjective "ijl = thin", used with regard to woods or to air. There is no sufficient semantic connection though.

     

    We suppose that the two English words, ill and ail, with their strictly related meanings, are related to each other and to the Hebrew root "GH Y L" that talks about suffering and pains as in grave illness.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew "ghalą" is the newer form, as to Biblical "ghil". A root "ח י ל , GH Y L", is found to mean various very different things, such as "force", "waiting", stability" and, as above "suffering and pains". Obviously the limited number of combinations one can make of less than thirty consonants and within the framework of pronunciation -habits and limits in a language makes this inevitable. For the etymologist a complication !

 

Note:
  • Hebrew. Some scholars link this root "ghil = to suffer, writhe " to another one, "ghol= to move in a circle, dance", and that is known in other Semitic languages. See entry GD 1051 (Hebrew 0465).

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. We have limited indications on which to base a hypothesis. See entry E 0226 (Hebrew 0472). The root may well have been present in Proto-Semitic as "*ח י ל , GH Y L" or even more probably as earlier "*ח ו ל , GH W L".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. We have rather limited information for a solid hypothesis. English "ill" has its sister words like Norwegian "ill" that says "painful, bad, unwell" with its predecessor "illr" in Old Norse. English "ill" is also considered as having been loaned from Nordic, but that remains uncertain for a word not found in Old English. The other word, "ail" is considered a development out of Old English "egle" that means " hideous, loathsome, grievous" besides also "painful". This thesis is very uncertain as well. The root of "ill" is found in all Nordic languages and Proto-Germanic may have known it as "*I LL-".

 

 

 

 
"...the town, to which was given the name Babel, because it was there that the Lord confused the language of all the world on the face of which He dispersed them. GENESIS 11,9"
 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 28/10/2012 at 14.56.11