vicious
[ vish-uhs ]
/ ˈvɪʃ əs /
adjective
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RELATED WORDS
Nearby words
- vichyite,
- vichyssoise,
- vicinage,
- vicinal,
- vicinity,
- vicious circle,
- viciously,
- vicissitude,
- vicissitudes,
- vick
Origin of vicious
SYNONYMS FOR vicious
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for viciously
vicious
/ (ˈvɪʃəs) /
adjective
Word Origin for vicious
C14: from Old French vicieus, from Latin vitiōsus full of faults, from vitium a defect
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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vicious
early 14c. (implied in viciously), "of the nature of vice, wicked," from Anglo-French vicious, Old French vicieus, from Latin vitiosus "faulty, defective, corrupt," from vitium "fault" (see vice (n.1)). Meaning "inclined to be savage or dangerous" is first recorded 1711 (originally of animals, especially horses); that of "full of spite, bitter, severe" is from 1825. In law, "marred by some inherent fault" (late 14c.), hence also this sense in logic (c.1600); cf. vicious circle in reasoning (c.1792, Latin circulus vitiosus), which was given a general sense of "a situation in which action and reaction intensify one another" by 1839.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper