Where does “vile” come from?

Vile comes from Old French vil, from Latin vilis meaning cheap or worthless, from Proto-Italic weslis, from Proto-Indo-European wes-li-s.

vile (English): Morally low; base; despicable; Causing physical...

Definitions

  1. Morally low; base; despicable; Causing physical...

Ancestry of “vile”, step by step

vile traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Latin vilitas

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Latinvilitascheapness, inexpensiveness; meanness, baseness,...
2Latin-tāsty, -dom, -hood, -ness, -ship
3Proto-Indo-European-teh₂tsUsed to form nouns representing state of being
4Proto-Indo-European-teh₂Used to form nouns representing state of being
5Proto-Indo-European-tósCreates verbal adjectives from verb stems

via Middle English vile

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishvile—
2Old Frenchvilhorrible; vile; awful; low; base
3Latinvīlischeap, inexpensive
4Proto-Italicweslis—
5Proto-Indo-Europeanwes-li-s—

Words derived from “vile”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tós →Every word from Latin -tās →Every word from Proto-Indo-European -teh₂ →