Viciarse

Viciarse is a Spanish reflexive verb derived from vicio, a noun that refers to a habit, defect or vice. The term has several related senses and is used in both everyday and technical language.

The main meanings are: 1) to become addicted or dependent on something, often describing habits or substances or activities that are hard to abandon, such as alcohol, nicotine, gambling or video games; 2) to become corrupted, tainted or compromised in a process, object or information, so that it is defective, biased or compromised, as in a “sistema viciado” or “información viciada.” In everyday speech, viciarse can express losing control over a bad habit or falling into a negative influence, while viciado as an adjective denotes something spoiled, rigged or polluted.

Usage and nuance: viciarse emphasizes the subject’s onset of a vice or corruption, with varying strength depending on context. It is common in Spain and Latin America and can carry a pejorative or critical tone when referring to others’ habits or to faulty processes. The related adjective viciado describes something that is already spoiled or biased, as in “un juego viciado” or “información viciada.”

Conjugation and diathesis: viciarse is a regular pronominal verb of the first conjugation. For example: me vicio, te vicias, se vicía, nos viciamos, os viciáis, se vician.

See also: vicio (vice, defect), vicioso (vicious, biased), viciado (spoiled, corrupted).