vigil

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪdʒəl

Noun

vigil (plural vigils)

1. a watch kept during normal sleeping hours, especially over the body of a recently deceased or dying person
2. a period of observation or surveillance
3. the eve of some religious festival in which staying awake is part of the ritual devotions

Synonyms

(watch, especially at night):

• lookout, look-out
• qui vive
• watch

Related terms

• vigilance
• vigilant

Translations

watch

Bulgarian: бдение (bg) (bdénie) n. Croatian: bdjénje (hr) n., bdȉjēnje (hr) n. Dutch: Waak, Wake Finnish: valvojaiset German: Wache (de) Greek: αγρυπνία (el) (agrypnía) f.

Korean: 밤샘 (bam-saem), 밤새움 (bam-saeum) Polish: czuwanie (pl) n. Romanian: gardă (ro) Russian: бдение (ru) (bdénije) n. Spanish: vigilia (es) f.

a period of observation or surveillance

Finnish: vartio (fi), vartiovuoro (fi) Greek: επαγρύπνηση (el) (epagrýpnisi) f.

Romanian: așteptare (ro), observare (ro)

the eve of some religious festival

Finnish: aatto (fi) Greek: ολονυκτία (el) (olonyktía) f.

Spanish: vigilia (es) f.

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Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to be strong”).

Adjective

vigil

1. awake, watching, alert

Noun

vigil m. (plural: vigiles)

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

Inflection

Third declension (3).

Number	Singular	Plural
nominative	vigil	vigilēs
genitive	vigilis	vigilum
dative	vigilī	vigilibus
accusative	vigilem	vigilēs
ablative	vigile	vigilibus
vocative	vigil	vigilēs