vigor

Forms

• vigour (UK)

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vigour, also vigor,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman vigur, also vigour, and Old French vigor,^{[2][5][6][4][3]} and in part directly borrowed from Latin vigor (“liveliness, activity, force”),^[2][5][3] from vigeō (“to be lively, flourish, thrive”),^[5][4][3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to be strong, be lively”).^[4][7][8] Compare modern French vigueur.^[4][5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Physical strength and force in action, in Arthour and Merlin (manuscript of about 1330, composed perhaps before 1300), in the line lepen ouer wiþ gret vigour.^[2][3] Barnhart adds Kyng Alisaunder and dates the word probably before 1300,^[3] Etymonline gives about 1300, with a surname in the early 13th century,^[4] and the OED's first quotation is from about 1380.^[5] In Anglo-Norman the word is recorded from about 1170, for strength, prowess and force, as well as validity.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word was used for bodily strength and for energy or prowess in battle, often in the phrase with vigour;^[2][5] Chaucer used it seven times.^[10] It also meant legal force from 1425, a sense that Collins now labels chiefly American.^[5][11] From the 16th century it was applied to words and arguments, drugs and wine, the height of a disease or the prime of life, and mental or moral strength;^[5][4] by about 1600 to plants;^[5][4] by the early 17th century to government and administration.^[5][4] Johnson (1755), under vigour, gives "force; strength" first.^[12] Collins records the capacity for strong growth in plants and animals, as in hybrid vigour.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – physical strength, force in battle, in the phrase wiþ gret vigour.^[2][3] The poem was perhaps composed before 1300.^[2]
• c. 1380 – vitality and strength of a person, in Chaucer's Boece.^[2]
• 1425 – legal force, validity.^[5][2]
• before 1445 – active force of natural agencies and conditions.^[5]
• 1532 – force of words and arguments, in T. More.^[5][4]
• 1542 – strength of drugs, medicines and wine.^[5]
• 1563 – the state of greatest strength, in medicine the height of a disease.^[5] Etymonline dates the time of life of greatest strength to the 1580s.^[4]
• 1587 – mental or moral strength.^[5][4]
• 1604 – vigorous growth in plants.^[5][4]
• before 1630 – energetic action in government.^[5] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.^[4]
• 1636 – verb, to invigorate (recorded only then).^[5]
• 1774 – as a quality of art and literature.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Active strength of body or mind; vitality: At eighty she still swam with vigor.^[13][11][5]
2. Strong healthy growth in a plant or animal: hybrid vigor.^[11][13][5]
3. Force or intensity of action or effect: the vigor of his protest.^[13][11][5]
4. The most active stage of life; prime.^[11][5]
5. (law) Legal force; validity, especially in the phrase in vigor.^[13][11][5]

Word family

• vigorless

Related words

• vigorous
• invigorate
• vigil
• wake
• watch

Usage notes

Vigor is the American spelling and vigour the British.^{[13][11][14][15][4]} Middle English had both.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
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 c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press