English
vigilance
Vigilance comes from Latin vigilantia ‘vigilance, alertness’, and goes back to vigilans.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvigilans‘vigilant, watchful, alert’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEvigilantia‘vigilance, alertness’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600vigilance
- Englishearliest quotation 1837same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvigilans‘vigilant, watchful, alert’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEvigilantia‘vigilance, alertness’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600vigilance
- Englishearliest quotation 1837same form
Earliest quotation: 1837, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Ethel Churchill: Or: “To-night she took her accustomed place; for, during the…”
Every English word from Latin vigilans
Today it means
noun Alert watchfulness.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin vigilans / vigilance