vicarious

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vicārius (“substituted, delegated; a deputy”),^[2][3][4][5] with the suffix -ous,^[4][3][6] from vicis (“change, exchange, turn, stead”),^[2][7][4] a form found only in the oblique cases and the plural.^[3] Etymonline and Barnhart trace it to Proto-Indo-European *weik- (“to bend, wind”),^[2][8] Barnhart with a "perhaps" for the cognates Old High German wehsal (“change”) and German Wechsel;^[8] Klein adds Old English wīcan (“to give way, yield”).^[9] Vicar comes from the same Latin word through French,^[2] and Middle English had an adapted form vicari, "substituted", about 1400.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Taking the place of another thing or person; substituted: 1637, in Gillespie's Dispute against English-popish Ceremonies.^[4][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant simply a substitute.^[4][3] In the 1690s it came to describe something suffered or done in another's place,^[2][8][4] usually a punishment, often that of Christ.^[2] From 1706 it was also used of power exercised by a deputy,^[4] which is how Johnson (1755) defines it: "deputed; delegated; acting in the place of another".^[10] From 1780 physiologists used it of one organ doing the work of another.^[4][2] The sense that Collins and Merriam-Webster Unabridged now put first, a feeling enjoyed at second hand through someone else, came late: it is first implied in vicariously in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925),^[8][2] and the OED's first example of the adjective in this sense is in the Lynds' Middletown (1929).^[4] The Latin adjective was a source of other English formations in the 17th century, such as vicarial.^[2]

Timeline

• 1637 – taking the place of another; substitute.^[4][3][7]
• 1692 – done or suffered in place of others.^[8] The OED has punishment suffered by another from 1696.^[4]
• 1706 – of power, exercised by a deputy.^[4]
• 1780 – in physiology, of an organ doing the work of another.^[4][2]
• 1806 – performed by one person on behalf of another.^[4]
• 1925 – experienced at second hand, implied in vicariously.^[8][2] The OED's first example is from 1929.^[4]
• 1932 – in ecology, of similar species occupying separate areas.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Experienced at second hand, by imagining oneself in another's place: She read the climbers' diaries for the vicarious adventure.^[11][7][4]
2. Suffered or done in place of another: the doctrine of vicarious atonement.^[11][4]
3. Held or exercised by a deputy; delegated.^[11][4]
4. Serving instead of someone or something else; substitute.^[11][7][4]
5. (physiology) Of an organ, doing the work normally done by another.^[4][12]
6. (ecology) Of similar species, occurring in different areas, each without the other.^[4][12]

Word family

• vicariously
• vicariousness
• nonvicarious
• unvicarious

Related words

• vicar
• vice
• vicissitude
• week
• wicker

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press