viscount

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English viscounte,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman viscounte, also vescounte,^[5][6][7] and Old French visconte, also viconte (modern French vicomte).^[5][8][9] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1215, meaning a sheriff.^[10] The OED and Dictionary.com analyse the French word as formed from vis-, the prefix that is English vice-, and counte (“count”), after Medieval Latin vicecomes (“deputy of a count”) (genitive vicecomitis),^[5][3] which Barnhart, Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary give as its source.^[9][8][11] The Medieval Latin title is formed from the Late Latin prefix vice- (“deputy”) and Latin comes (“companion; member of the imperial court, nobleman”).^[9][8][11] The prefix comes from vice (“in place of”), the ablative of vicis (“change, turn”),^[8] and the word for a companion is formed from com- (“with”) and the stem of eō (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *ei- (“to go”).^[8] The same French word gave visconte, visconde and vizconde.^[5][12] In French the s eventually stopped being pronounced,^[9][13] and Barnhart notes that the spelling vis- survives in English only in viscount and its derivatives.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A deputy or representative of a count or earl in the administration of a district, in England a sheriff: 1387, in John Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[5][9] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century and finds it as a surname from the late 12th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word first named an office rather than a rank: in Anglo-Norman and in Middle English a viscount was above all a sheriff,^[10][12][7] and the form vice-count is also found.^[12][5] In the 15th century it became the title of the fourth order of the British peerage, between earl and baron, first recorded in the Rolls of Parliament of 1450.^[5][8][7] Johnson (1755) still explained it as meaning the same as sheriff, the one word coming from the Normans and the other from the Saxons, and added the sense of a degree of nobility next to an earl.^[14] From 1694 the word also named an officer of the island of Jersey.^[5] Since 1847, in Thackeray's Vanity Fair, it was used of continental titles for the son or younger brother of a count.^[5] The French form vicomte has been used in English since 1786.^[8]

Timeline

• late 12th century – found as a surname.^[8]
• 1387 – the deputy of a count or earl in a district; in England, a sheriff.^[5][9]
• 1450 – a member of the fourth order of the British peerage, between earl and baron.^[5][8]
• 1694 – the name of an officer in Jersey.^[5]
• 1786 – the French form vicomte used in English.^[8]
• 1847 – in continental use, the son or younger brother of a count.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A member of the British peerage ranking below an earl and above a baron.^[15][2][5]
2. In some European countries, the son or younger brother of a count.^[15][5]
3. (historical) An officer who stood in for a count or earl in governing a district; in England, a sheriff.^[15][2][5]

Word family

• viscountcy
• viscounty

Related words

• viscountess
• vicontiel
• count
• vice-
• vicomte
• county

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ 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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins