Etymology Dictionary

AIL,  to feel pain; to give pain.  (E.)   M.E. eilen, rarely ailen.   'What eileth the?' Chaucer, C. T. 1081.   Spelt eȝlen, Ormulum, 4767.—A.S. eglan, to trouble, pain; Grein, i. 222.   Cf. A.S. egle, troublesome, hostile. + Goth. aglijan, only in the comp. us-agljan, to trouble exceedingly, to distress, to weary out, Luke, xviii. 5.   Cf. Goth. aglo, anguish; aglitha, agony, tribulation; aglus, difficult, hard.   From a stem ag-, with a suffixed l, often used to give a frequentative force; so that agl- means 'to keep on vexing' or 'to distress continually.'   The stem ag- corresponds to mod. E. awe, and appears in A.S. eg-esa, awe, terror, distress, eg-sian, to frighten; also in Goth. ag-is, fright, af-ag-jan, to terrify; also in Gk. ἄχ-ος, distress, pain.—✔AGH, to feel distress, orig. to choke; Fick, i. 481.   See Awe.   Der. ail-ment, in Kersey, a hybrid compound, with F. suffix.