vigil

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 *weǵ- (“to be strong, lively, awake”). See also wake and vigor, from the same root.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɪd͡ʒəl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪd͡ʒəl

Noun

vigil (plural vigils)

1. An instance of keeping awake during normal sleeping hours, especially to keep watch or pray.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Francesca Carrara. , volume II, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 149:

     I saw her head drooped upon her hand; her whole attitude expressing that profound depression, whose lonely vigil wastes the midnight in a gloomy watch, which yet hopes for nothing at its close.

   • 2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Fleet (2017), page 165:

     Eventually the body trade grew so reckless that relatives took to holding graveside vigils, lest their loved ones disappear in the night.

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

Derived terms

Related terms

• vigilance
• vigilant
• vigilation
• vigilous

Translations

Verb

vigil (third-person singular simple present vigils, present participle vigiling, simple past and past participle vigiled)

1. To participate in a vigil.
   • 1985 August 17, Loie Hayes, “Lesbian 'Shadow Painters' Join in Nuclear Protest”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 6, page 1:

     As the arrested painters and their supporters waited out their "day in court," other activists distributed Hiroshima information leaflets, vigiled silently with placards and banners, and marched 500-strong through downtown Boston to a rally at City Hall Plaza.

Latin

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈu̯i.ɡil/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈvi.d͡ʒil/,

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; angel
2. (in the plural) the watch, police, constabulary

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Derived terms

• vigilia
• vigilō

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.