vigilant

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French vigilant,^[2][3] or directly borrowed from Latin vigilāns (“watchful, anxious, careful”),^{[4][5][3][6][7]} the present participle of vigilō (“to keep awake, watch”),^[4][5][8][2] from vigil (“awake, watchful”).^[4][5][2] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary name Old French as the French source,^[5][8] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English derive the word from Latin alone.^[6][7] The Latin adjective is a derivative of vigeō (“to be lively, thrive”),^[5][9] from Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to be strong, be lively”).^[5][8][10] The participle also gave vigilante, vigilante and vigilante.^[4] It is related to vigilante, reveille and surveillance, and more distantly to vigour, wake and watch.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wakeful and watchful, keeping steadily on the alert: before 1500, in Henryson's translation of Aesop's fables, in the fable of the paddock and the mouse.^[4] Etymonline and the Oxford Dictionary of English date it to the late 15th century,^[5][7] and Dictionary.com to 1470–80.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The sense has changed little since the 15th century: watchful, alert and attentive to danger.^[4][5] Elyot (1531) applied it to attention itself, as marked by vigilance,^[4] and a sense "wakeful, sleepless" was used briefly in the 17th century.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "watchful; circumspect; diligent; attentive".^[12] In the United States it was used from 1824 for the members of a vigilance committee.^[4] From 1822 the word was occasionally a noun, a guardian or watchful person.^[4] Heraldry used it from about 1828 for an animal shown on the watch.^[4] Modern dictionaries stress watchfulness for danger or trouble, especially while others are unaware.^[13][2]

Timeline

• before 1500 – wakeful and watchful, keeping on the alert.^[4] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1470–80.^[11]
• 1531 – of attention, marked by vigilance.^[4]
• 1620 – wakeful, sleepless (obsolete).^[4]
• 1822 – noun, a guardian, or a watchful person (rare).^[4]
• 1824 – American, of members of a vigilance committee.^[4]
• c. 1828 – heraldry, of animals on the watch.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Keeping careful watch for possible danger or trouble; alert and watchful: A vigilant neighbour noticed the smoke and called the fire brigade.^[13][2][4]
2. Of attention or care: marked by vigilance; closely monitoring a situation.^[4][6]

Word family

• vigilantly
• vigilantness
• hypervigilant
• supervigilant
• unvigilant

Related words

• vigil
• vigilance
• vigilante
• reveille
• surveillance
• vigour
• wake
• watch

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
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. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins