word choice - "Sick" or "ill"?


If I'm not healthy, am I sick or am I ill?


Are these interchangeable, or do they merely overlap?



Answer



They're generally used synonymously these days, though there was originally a distinction in meaning. "Ill" generically referred to being unwell, whereas "sick" referred to vomiting — this still persists to some degree.


In modern times there has been (and still is to a degree) a distinction between upper-class and non-upper-class usage in British English. See the Wikipedia article for example. The upper-class usage, unsurprisingly, seems to preserve the more traditional meanings of the two words.



U                         Non-U
Ill (in bed)              Sick (in bed)  
I was sick on the boat.   I was ill on the boat.

Finally, if you're curious you can take a look at the etymologies of sick and ill. The latter originally only meant "morally evil", curiously enough. This is going back to the high Middle Ages, however. Meanings have been are still in constant flux.


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