From Middle English vicious, from Anglo-Norman vicious, (modern French vicieux), from Latin vitiōsus, from vitium ("fault, vice").

• IPA: /ˈvɪʃəs/

vicious

1. Violent, destructive and cruel.
2. Savage and aggressive.
3. (archaic) Pertaining to vice; characterised by immorality or depravity.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:
     , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.195:

     We may so seize on vertue, that if we embrace it with an over-greedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.

   • 1930, Ogden Nash, Lines to Be Mumbled at Ovington's:

     A murrain on you, Reverend Apse/I hope you get caught in a vicious moral lapse.

• scathy

• See vice#Related_terms

• German: gewalttätig, destruktiv
• Italian: violento
• Russian: злой

• German: grausam, aggressiv
• Italian: aggressivo

• French: vicieux
• German: böse, boshaft, übel, unmoralisch
• Russian: поро́чный
• Spanish: vicioso

Originally a nickname for a vicious person.

1. Surname.