vigil

Middle English vigile (“a devotional watching”), from Old French vigile, from Latin vigilia (“wakefulness, watch”), from vigil (“awake”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be strong”).

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.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɪdʒəl/
• Rhymes: -ɪdʒəl

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.

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

• vigilance
• vigilant

From Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be strong”), whence vigeō.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈwi.ɡil/, [ˈwɪ.ɡɪɫ]

vigil (genitive vigilis); third declension

1. awake, watching, alert

Third declension.

vigil m (genitive vigilis); third declension

1. watchman, sentinel
2. (in the plural) the watch, police

Third declension.

• vigilia
• vigilō

• 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