different between vigilance vs vigil

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French vigilance, from Latin vigilantia

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v?d??l?ns/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /?v?d??l?ns/

Noun

vigilance (usually uncountable, plural vigilances)

1. Alert watchfulness.
2. Close and continuous attention.
   • 1837 March 4, Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address

     But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.

3. (obsolete) A guard; a person set to watch.

Derived terms

Related terms

• vigilant

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vigilantia; equivalent to vigile +? -ance

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vi.?i.l??s/
• Rhymes: -??s

Noun

vigilance f (plural vigilances)

1. vigilance

Further reading

• “vigilance” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From Middle English vigile (“a devotional watching”), from Old French vigile, from Latin vigilia (“wakefulness, watch”), from vigil (“awake”), from Proto-Indo-European *we?- (“to be strong, lively, awake”). See also wake, from the same root.

Related to vigor, and more distantly compare vis and vital, from similar Proto-Indo-European roots and meanings (lively, power, life), via Latin. For use of “live, alive” in sense “watching”, compare qui vive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v?d??l/
• Rhymes: -?d??l

Noun

vigil (plural vigils)

1. An instance of keeping awake during normal sleeping hours, especially to keep watch or pray.
2. A period of observation or surveillance at any hour.

   His dog kept vigil outside the hospital for eight days while he was recovering from an accident.

3. The eve of a religious festival in which staying awake is part of the ritual devotions.
4. A quiet demonstration in support of a cause.

   The protesters kept vigil outside the conference centre in which the party congress was being held.

Synonyms

• (watch, especially at night): lookout, look-out, qui vive, watch

Related terms

• vigilance
• vigilant
• vigilation
• vigilous

Translations

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *we?- (“to be strong, lively, awake”), whence vige?.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?u?i.?il/, [?u??????]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?vi.d??il/, [?vi?d??il]

Adjective

vigil (genitive vigilis); third-declension one-termination adjective

1. awake, watching, alert

Declension

Third-declension one-termination adjective.

Noun

vigil m (genitive vigilis); third declension

1. watchman, guard, sentinel; constable, fireman
2. (in the plural) the watch, police, constabulary

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Derived terms

• vigilia
• vigil?

Descendants

References

• vigil in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• vigil in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• vigil in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette