vigour

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Contents

English [edit]

Alternative forms [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman vigour, from Old French vigor, from Latin vigor, from vigeo (thrive, flourish), from Proto-Indo-European.

Related to vigil, and more distantly compare vis and vital, from similar Proto-Indo-European roots and meanings (lively, power, life), via Latin.

Noun [edit]

vigour (countable and uncountable; plural vigours)

  1. Active strength or force of body or mind; capacity for exertion, physically, intellectually, or morally; force; energy.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden:
      The vigor of this arm was never vain.
  2. (biology) Strength or force in animal or force in animal or vegetable nature or action; as, a plant grows with vigor.
  3. Strength; efficacy; potency.
    • 1667, (Can we find and add a quotation of John Milton to this entry?):
      But in the fruithful earth [] His beams, unactive else, their vigor find.

Usage notes [edit]

Vigor and its derivatives commonly imply active strength, or the power of action and exertion, in distinction from passive strength, or strength to endure.

Derived terms [edit]

Related terms [edit]

Translations [edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Old French [edit]

Noun [edit]

vigour m (oblique plural vigours, nominative singular vigours, nominative plural vigour)

  1. Alternative form of vigur.