ill

记忆单词“ill”可以通过联想其含义，即生病或不好。可以将“ill”想象为“ill”字母的笔画弯曲变形，就像人生病时身体不舒服的样子。这种方法通过视觉联想帮助记忆单词的含义。

ill 病的

来自中古英语ille,邪恶的，不道德的，来自PIE*elk,伤口，脓疮，词源同ulcus,ulcerous.最终词义又回归其词源义生病的，疾病的。

ill

ill: [12] ‘Sick’ is not the original meaning of ill. To start with it meant ‘bad’ (a sense which survives, of course, in contexts such as ‘ill-will’, ‘illmannered’, etc), and ‘sick’ did not come on the scene until the 15th century. The word was borrowed from Old Norse illr, which is something of a mystery: it has other modern descendants in Swedish illa and Danish ilde ‘badly’, but its other relations are highly dubious (Irish olc has been compared) and no one knows where it originally came from. The sense ‘sick’ was probably inspired by an impersonal usage in Old Norse which meant literally ‘it is bad to me’.
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ill (adj.)

c. 1200, "morally evil" (other 13c. senses were "malevolent, hurtful, unfortunate, difficult"), from Old Norse illr "ill, bad," of unknown origin. Not considered to be related to evil. Main modern sense of "sick, unhealthy, unwell" is first recorded mid-15c., probably related to Old Norse idiom "it is bad to me." Slang inverted sense of "very good, cool" is 1980s. As a noun, "something evil," from mid-13c.

ill (v.)

early 13c., "to do evil to," from ill (adj.). Meaing "to speak disparagingly" is from 1520s. Related: Illed; illing.

ill (adv.)

c. 1200, "wickedly; with hostility;" see ill (adj.). Meaning "not well, poorly" is from c. 1300. It generally has not shifted to the realm of physical sickess, as the adjective has done. Ill-fated recorded from 1710; ill-informed from 1824; ill-tempered from c. 1600; ill-starred from c. 1600. Generally contrasted with well, hence the useful, but now obsolete or obscure illcome (1570s), illfare (c. 1300), and illth.

1. "I'm afraid he's ill." — "I'm sorry to hear that."

“恐怕他生病了。”——“真是遗憾。”

2. Her daughters visited him from time to time when he was ill.

他生病的时候她的女儿们时常去探望他。

3. She was so ill that she was put on a respirator.

她病得很严重，被戴上了人工呼吸器。

4. An employer can demand written certification that the relative is really ill.

雇主可以要求出具书面证明，证实员工的亲人确实病了。

5. These various complaints are part of a continuum of ill-health.

这些各种各样的疾病、不适都是身体健康状况欠佳的一种表现。

【ill, sick】
ill: 做表语,
sick: 定,表均可 a sick boy

【ill, poor, bad, evil, wicked】
这组词都有“坏的”的意思，其区别是：
ill: 与evil意义接近，但语气弱一些，常指道德或性质方面的不良。
poor: 普通用词，侧重指事物的质量或数量低于标准或不合要求。用于指天气与食品时可与bad通用。
bad: 含义广泛，指任何不好的或不合需要的品质。
evil: 语气比bad强，强调道德上的邪恶不良，含狡猾凶险或危害他人的意味。
wicked: 语气比evil强，指居心叵测，任意违反道德标准，有意作恶。