Where does “vicious” come from?
Vicious comes from Middle English vicious, from Anglo-Norman vicious, from Latin vitiosus meaning full of faults, derived from Latin vitium with the suffix -osus.
vicious (English): Violent, destructive and cruel; Savage and...
Definitions
- Violent, destructive and cruel; Savage and...
Ancestry of “vicious”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | -ly | Used to form adjectives from nouns, the... |
| 2 | English | grisly | Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying;... |
| 3 | Middle English | grisely | — |
| 4 | Old English | grisliċ | grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid |
| 5 | Old English | -līċ | suffix forming {{glossary|adjective}}s meaning... |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | *-līk | — |