Etymologically
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vicinity

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /vɪˈsɪnɪti/[1]
  • US: /vəˈsɪnəti/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vīcīnitās (“neighbourhood, nearness”),[2][3][4][5] partly through vicinité according to Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster.[6][7][8] The Latin noun is formed on vīcīnus (“neighbouring; a neighbour”), from vīcus (“group of houses, village”),[6][9][10] which is related to wick, an element of place names in England.[6][10][11] It goes back to the root Proto-Indo-European *weik- (“clan, settlement”),[6][9] and Barnhart's full edition lists Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos, “house”) among its cognates.[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nearness in space: 1560, in J. Daus's translation of J. Sleidane's Commentaries.[2][8][7] Etymonline dates the word to the 1550s[6] and Dictionary.com to 1550–60.[12]

Semantic evolution

From 1594 to 1676 vicinity could also mean nearness in kind, a close relationship or resemblance, a sense now obsolete.[2][5] Johnson (1755) gave two senses, "nearness" and "neighbourhood".[13] The concrete sense, the surrounding district, is found in Thomas Jefferson's correspondence in 1781,[2] and the phrase in the vicinity of is found in 1796;[2][6] by 1817 the phrase could refer to a number or amount near a given figure.[2]

Timeline

  • 1560 – nearness in space;[2][8] the 1550s in Etymonline.[6]
  • 1594 – nearness in kind, resemblance (until 1676).[2]
  • 1781 – a neighbourhood or surrounding district.[2]
  • 1796 – in the vicinity of.[2][6]
  • 1817 – approximately (of an amount).[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The surrounding or nearby area; the neighbourhood: No shops are open in the vicinity after nine.
  2. The state of being near; proximity.
  3. Near to, or (of an amount) about, in the phrase in the vicinity of: The repairs will cost in the vicinity of a thousand pounds.
  • vicinage
  • vicinal

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.