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

Synonyms:

Other Word Forms of Vigil

Singular:

vigil

Plural:

vigils

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