ill

 We all know of words in Standard English that have more than one meaning.  Well according to the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, the word ill (a Slang term) also has many different meanings.  Nowadays the term “ill” can either mean that something is good or that something is bad.  I will attempt to clarify the term as my paper continues.  The Standard English term “ill” came into play in the fifteenth century.  It was used by several doctors referring to ill or sick patients.  An example sentence of how it was used in the fifteenth century might’ve looked like this:  “He is very ill.”  Here are some samples of the meanings for the term ill in the Oxford English Dictionary:

Ill, V.
1. To contrive maliciously.
    Ex.:  The tornado illed the building.
2. To cause ill or evil to, to harm, hurt, injure, wrong.
    Ex:   The witch put an ill curse on her victim.
3.  To speak ill of, abuse, malign, and disparage.
    Ex:   The judge illed the bank robber.

 Ill, N.
1. Wickedness, depravity, evil.
     Ex:  The devil is ill.
2. Misfortune; calamity, evil, disease; pain
     Ex:  The patient is very ill.
3. What ever annoys or impairs happiness, or prevents success.
     Ex:  It is very ill when somebody dies in your family.

 Ill, Adv.
1. In an ill manner; specifically bad
     Ex:  His action towards the teacher’s example was very ill.
2. With difficulty; scarcely
     Ex:  He maneuvered in an ill fashion.

Here are some sample meanings of the term ill according to the self-developed “rebellious” language called slang:
 
 Ill, V.
1. To act ignorantly towards a person; the act of wrong doing to a person.
Ex:  He illed on him when he ratted him out.
 Ill, N.
2. To describe or  critique ones doing
Ex:  That new Dr. Dre cd is very ill!
Here is the grammatical form for the word ill using slang definitions:
 
Noun --  ill
Here is some example sentences using “ill” in its grammatical form.  Here is “ill” in the form of a noun:
“That new Dr. Dre verse is ill as hell!”
 
Verb --  ill
Here is “ill” in the form of a Verb:
 “You don’t want me to ill on you do you?”
 
Particles -- to ill
Here is “ill” in the form of a Particle:
 “He ills a lot.”
 
Past participle -- to be illed on
Here is “ill” in the form of a past participle:
 “He illed on me last night.”

 Active --  I illed

Here is “ill” in the form of an Active:
 “I illed on him because he illed on me last week.”
Adjective – illed
Here is “ill” in the form of an adjective:
 
 “The way he illed was very ill.  Not cool at all.”
 
You see the word ill can have several different meanings in both the slang and Standard American English.

        What’s the difference?  In the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, the word ill basically means bad or evil.  In the slang definition of the word ill, it means to act ignorantly toward someone.  To me the term ill means the wrong doing to somebody.  The word ill in Standard English means sick or diseased, but in the slang definition If I said, “I am ill” that would mean that I am good at something.  No this word is not found in a Standard English dictionary, but it is in it’s slang form.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this term came into the English language around the fifteenth century.  The slang term came into play around 1988.  This slang word comes from its natural word ill but it does have a little twist to it.  It got into the slang language because famous rapper KRS-One used it in a rhyme and from that point on it was used as a frequent spoken slang term.  The usual age groups that use it are around 16-19.  This slang expression “ill” has not changed since it first came out back in the fifteenth century.  The different situations in the way you use it depend on if the situation is good or bad.  If the situation were bad then you would use a sentence like “He illed on Me.” if the situation was good then you would use a sentence like “His new rhyme was very ill.”  Some alternate terms for the word ill are:

 1. ish
 2. luncheon
I would use the above words in the same situations as in the above sentences except luncheon doesn’t mean that something can be good like “His cd is ill.”
Ex 1:  He ished on me.
Example 1, in other words, means that he illed on me.
 Ex 2: He is luncheon.
Example 2 means that he is “illin” on me.
 The above terms (ish and luncheon) are very similar to the word “ill” in many instances.  One main similarity between these three words is that you can use them in the same situations.  For instance, if you some one told on you for something you can say something like:
1. He illed on me for telling.
2. He is ishing bad, he shouldn’t have told on me.
3. He is luncheon for telling on me.
As you can see the three words are similar in some situations.  The only difference between the three words is that you can’t use the word luncheon when you want to say something is good.  Example:  “This cd is luncheon.”  This sentence means that the cd is stupid or not good.

        In conclusion I would like to state that the word “ill” is a very common word in both Standard English and Slang and people will continue to use it for a long time.  Basically the word means to commit an ignorant act towards somebody or it means that something is good in style or taste.  It’s very ironic that most slang words have one term but have multiple meanings for different situations.

 Simeon McClain