ILL, the verb

[Damien Hall]

I'm sure the point has already been made (or at least appreciated off-list), but: I'm not sure that the early cites given here for the verb 'ILL' (_sic_) are really cites of what was first looked for.  If I recall correctly, the quotation that sparked the thread was written as 'ill', definitely suggesting that it was pronounced like the word that means 'sick'.  By contrast, all the early cites given in this thread write 'ILL' in capital letters: so we don't know, I think, whether the users would have spelt the abbreviation out or pronounced it as a single syllable.

Damien

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Damien Hall
Newcastle University (UK)

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