Etymograph

English

sick

Sick comes from Middle English sik ‘sick’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sewg- ‘to be troubled or grieved’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sewg-1‘to be troubled or grieved’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*seukaz1reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*seuk1reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sēoc1‘sick’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sik1‘sick’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1599sick1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English sick
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.: “Our great-grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sewg-Wiktionary, English sick‘to be troubled or grieved’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*seukazWiktionary, English sickreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*seukWiktionary, English sickreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sēocWiktionary, English sick‘sick’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sikWiktionary, English sick‘sick’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1599sickWiktionary, English sick. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.: “Our great-grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died.”

The story

The "very good, excellent" sense is an ameliorative semantic shift from the original sense of "in poor health".

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with sick, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *sewg- ‘to be troubled or grieved’

  • suck ← souken ← sūcan ← *sūkan ← *sūkaną
  • suction ← sūctiō ← sūctus ← sūgō ← *sougō
  • succulent ← sūculentus ← sūcus ← *soukos
  • prosciutto ← asciutto ← *perexsūctus ← exsūctus ← exsūgō

6 more relatives in the full family tree

No ads, ever.

Become a founding member, $29 onceI have a code

Explore everything descended from *sewg- →

No ads, ever. This is how the app stays alive.

Become a founding member, $29 onceWear this word, $32Support the app

Today it means

adj In poor health; ill.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sick”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sewg- / sick