viaticum

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin viāticum (“travelling money, provision for a journey”),^[2][3][4][5] the noun use of the neuter of viāticus (“of a road or journey”),^[2][3][4][6] from via (“way, road”),^[2][3][4][7] from Proto-Indo-European *wegh- (“to go, move, transport in a vehicle”).^[3] Collins and Dictionary.com put the verb viō (“to travel”) between viāticus and via.^[8][5] The Latin word is also the source of Italian viatico and French viatique,^[2] and voyage is a doublet of it.^[1][9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Eucharist given to a dying person: 1562, in the Apologie of Priuate Masse.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The word's Latin history starts with the road: viāticus, of or for a journey, is found from Plautus,^[6] and the neuter noun meant the money or supplies for a journey.^[2][3] In Late Latin it could mean the money that paid for a student abroad, and in Church Latin the Eucharist given to the dying.^[3] English took the church sense first, and then the older literal ones: travel money from 1594,^[2] and food and other provisions from 1665.^[2][3] Figurative uses, drawing on either meaning, go back to about 1605.^[2] An anglicized form, viatic, did not last.^[10] Johnson (1755) lists the journey sense ahead of the church one, which he defines as the last rites "used to prepare the passing soul for its departure",^[11] as Merriam-Webster Unabridged still does,^[9] but Collins now calls the journey sense rare.^[8]

Timeline

• 1562 – the Eucharist given to a person who is dying or in danger of death.^[2][9] Etymonline dates the sense to the 1560s.^[3]
• 1594 – a supply of money or necessaries for a journey.^[2] Etymonline dates money for travelling by the 1580s.^[3]
• c. 1605 – figurative use.^[2]
• 1665 – provisions taken for a journey.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An allowance of money or supplies for travelling expenses: The envoy drew his viaticum before setting out.^[9][2][8]
2. Food or other provisions for a journey.^[9][2][8]
3. (Christianity) The Eucharist or Holy Communion given to someone dying or in danger of death.^[9][8][2]

Related words

• via
• voyage
• viatical
• way

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.