sick [OE] The Old English word sick was the usual way of referring to someone physically unwell before *ill arrived in the early Middle Ages, and is still normal use in the USA. Tsar Nicholas I of Russia reportedly said of the Sultan of Turkey in 1853: ‘I am not so eager about what shall be done when the sick man dies, as I am to determine with England what shall not be done upon that event taking place.’ His remarks reflected the precarious state of the Ottoman Empire and its slow but inevitable disintegration. Political commentators exploited this view and started to refer to Turkey as the sick man of Europe. The expression the sick man of— was applied to other countries over the following decades, and now often refers to factors other than economics or politics.