Vigil Definition

vĭjəl
vigils
noun
vigils
A purposeful or watchful staying awake during the usual hours of sleep.
Webster's New World
A watch kept, or the period of this.
Webster's New World
The act or a period of observing; surveillance.
American Heritage
The evening or day before a festival, or the devotional services held then.
Webster's New World
Ritual devotions observed on the eve of a holy day.
American Heritage

Other Word Forms of Vigil

Noun

Singular:
vigil
Plural:
vigils

Origin of Vigil

  • 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").

    From Wiktionary

  • 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.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English vigile a devotional watching from Old French from Latin vigilia wakefulness, watch from vigil awake weg- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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