Ail vs Nil - What's the difference?
ail | nil |
(obsolete) Painful; troublesome.
To cause to suffer; to trouble, afflict. (Now chiefly in interrogative or indefinite constructions.)
* Bible, Genesis xxi. 17
* 2011 , "Connubial bliss in America", The Economist :
To be ill; to suffer; to be troubled.
* Richardson
Nothing; zero.
* 1946 , (Bertrand Russell), History of Western Philosophy , I.19:
No, not any.
* 1982 , Gavin Lyall, Conduct of Major Maxim , Hodder & Stoughton Ltd:
As nouns the difference between ail and nil
is that ail is an ailment; trouble; illness while nil is nothing; zero.As an adjective ail
is painful; troublesome.As a verb ail
is to cause to suffer; to trouble, afflict. (Now chiefly in interrogative or indefinite constructions..As a determiner nil is
no, not any.ail
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) .Adjective
(en-adj)Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- Have some chicken soup. It's good for what ails you.
- What aileth thee, Hagar?
- Not content with having in 1996 put a Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) on the statue book, Congress has now begun to hold hearings on a Respect for Marriage Act. Defended, respected: what could possibly ail marriage in America?
- When he ails ever so little he is so peevish.
Quotations
* (English Citations of "ail")Etymology 3
From (etyl) .Anagrams
* * ----nil
English
Noun
(en noun)- As to Aristotle's influence on him, we are left free to conjecture whatever seems to us most plausible. For my part, I should suppose it nil .
Determiner
(en determiner)- But after two or three hours and nil results, you have to accept that the trail is cold and you can't justify that level of manpower.