The sense of ‘ill-being’

Q: I was discussing well-being this morning and wondered about its antonym. AI says “the opposite of wellbeing is often considered to be illbeing, which refers to a state of poor health or unhappiness.” Do you have any thoughts about this? A: You can find “ill-being” in several standard dictionaries. Merriam-Webster, for example, defines it as “a condition of being deficient in health, happiness, or prosperity,” and American Heritage as “lack of prosperity, happiness, or health. The Oxford English Dictionary, an etymological reference, says it refers to an “ ‘ill’ or unprosperous condition; employed as the antithesis of well-being.” Both terms are usually hyphenated now. The OED indicates that “ill-being” is relatively rare, with “about 0.02 occurrences per million words in modern written English.” As for the more common “well-being,” Oxford defines it as “the state of being healthy, happy, or prosperous; physical, psychological, or moral welfare.” A search for “ill-being” and…