Etymograph

English

vice

Vice comes from Middle English vice ‘a bad habit or tendency that one has’, and goes back to Latin vitium ‘fault or blemish’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitium‘fault or blemish’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400vice
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘a bad habit or tendency that one has’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1839same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitium‘fault or blemish’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400vice
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘a bad habit or tendency that one has’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1839same form

Earliest quotation: 1839, Scholefield v. Robb; cited in Gilligan, Brenda: “So a horse with say, navicular disease, making him…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ‘two’

two, doubt, defeat, twin, dual, duo, binary, diplomacy, dubious, duet, twain, bis, disparate, twig, bes, binocular, deuce, biceps, betwixt, 21 more

through Latin vitium ‘fault or blemish’

vicious, 2 more

Another origin of vice

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvice‘in place of’
  2. Englishtodaysame form

Today it means

noun Bad or immoral behaviour. (Especially often, a habit that harms oneself or others)

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin vitium / vice

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