Vile (pronounced vahyl)
(1) Wretchedly
bad.
(2) Highly
offensive, unpleasant, or objectionable.
(3) Repulsive
or disgusting, as to the senses or feelings; repellent.
(4) Morally
debased, depraved, or despicable; vulgar, obscene.
(5) Foul;
filthy.
(6) Poor;
wretched.
(7) Of
mean or low condition; Menial; lowly.
(8) Degraded;
ignominious.
(9) Of
little value or account; paltry
(10) Vicious,
evil iniquitous.
(11) Unpleasant
or bad weather.
1250–1300:
From the Middle English vil, from the
Anglo-French ville, from the Old French vil (shameful, dishonorable; low-born;
cheap; ugly, hideous), from the Latin vīlis
(cheap, worthless, base, common), possibly from the primitive Indo-European wes-li, a deverbal adjective with
passive meaning (which can be bought), from the root of venus (sale). It was cognate
with the Latin vīlis, the Ancient
Greek ὦνος (ônos) & ὠνέομαι (ōnéomai)
(to buy), the Sanskrit वस्नयति (vasnayati) (to haggle) and वस्न (vasna) (price). Related forms are the adjectives viler and vilest,
the adverb vilely and the noun vileness (the thirteenth century vilety appears to be extinct). Handy synonyms include repugnant, horrid,
contemptible, depraved, noxious, vulgar, humiliating, vicious, disgusting,
sleazy, ugly, despicable, repulsive, revolting, miserable, nasty, appalling,
immoral, shocking and disgraceful.
The
verb revile was from the late fourteenth century revilen (debase, degrade (a sense now obsolete)) and by the
mid-fourteenth century meant "insult, taunt, vilify, assail with abusive
language". It was from the Old
French reviler (consider vile,
despise, scorn). The mid-fifteenth
century vilify (to lower in worth or value) was from the Late Latin vilificare (to make cheap or base; to
esteem of little value) is from the Latin vilis
(cheap, worthless, base, common).
The meaning "to slander, speak evil of" dates from the 1590s.
Crooked Hillary Clinton, deleting something.
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