vigorous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman vigrus, also vigerous, and Old French vigoros, vigourous,^[2][3] modern vigoureux,^[2][4] from Medieval Latin vigōrōsus,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin vigor (“liveliness, activity, force”),^[4][5][7] from vigeō (“to be lively, flourish, thrive”),^[3][8] from Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to be strong, be lively”).^[3][8] The Anglo-Norman adjective is recorded from 1214, meaning strong, robust or powerful.^[9] The OED compares vigoroso, vigoroso and vigoroso;^[2] Merriam-Webster instead takes the English word as formed in French from vigour and the suffix -ous.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of people or animals, strong and active in body, robust and hardy: about 1330, in Arthour and Merlin.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense "full of strength or active force; mighty, powerful" to about 1300, and finds the word as a surname from the early 13th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the bodily sense the word spread in the 16th century to actions and measures carried out with energy (1524) and to natural forces and substances (1548), and in the 17th to the mind and the soul (1640) and to immaterial things (1637, in Milton's Comus).^[2] It was used of the body and its health from 1618, of strenuous activity from 1697, and of plants that grow strongly from 1706.^[2][4] From 1821, in Scott's Kenilworth, it was applied to forceful language.^[2] An inflated form vigorious is recorded from the mid 15th century and was used in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the word as "Forcible; not weakened; full of strength and life".^[11]

Timeline

• early 13th century – as a surname.^[3]
• c. 1330 – of people or animals, strong and active in body.^[2]
• mid 15th century – the inflated form vigorious.^[3]
• 1524 – of actions and measures, carried out with energy.^[2]
• 1548 – of natural forces and substances (now somewhat rare).^[2]
• 1637 – of immaterial things, in Milton's Comus.^[2]
• 1640 – of the mind or soul.^[2]
• 1697 – of activity requiring physical strength.^[2][4]
• 1706 – of plants, growing strongly.^[2]
• 1821 – of language, forceful.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of physical or mental strength and energy; robust and healthy: a vigorous old farmer.^[12][10][2]
2. Done with force and energy; strenuous or forceful: a vigorous debate over the new rules.^[12][10][2]
3. Of plants, growing strongly and freely.^[2][4]

Word family

• vigorously
• vigorousness
• overvigorous
• supervigorous
• unvigorous

Related words

• vigor
• invigorate
• vegetable
• vigil
• wake
• watch

References

1. ^ 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 q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins