Etymologically
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vitality

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Pronunciation

  • /vaɪˈtælɪti/, /vaɪˈtæləti/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vītālitās (“vital force, life”),[2][3][4][5][6] a word recorded in Pliny,[2] formed from vītālis (“of life”) with -itās,[4][2] the source of vital.[3][2] Vītālis is from vīta (“life”), related to vīvō (“to live”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷei- (“to live”).[3][7] The OED compares French vitalité, Italian vitalità and Spanish vitalidad.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The vital force or principle of life in living things: probably 1592, in The Tragedy of Solyman and Perseda.[2][4] Etymonline gives the sense "the exhibiting of the capacities of animation or life" from the 1590s.[3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as the power of subsisting in life, quoting Raleigh's History of the World.[8] In the 19th century it was applied to plants and to the germinating power of seeds (1829),[2] and used figuratively for the capacity of something to go on existing or working, from 1848 in the OED and by 1844 in Etymonline.[2][3] The now usual sense of mental or physical vigour, liveliness, is recorded from 1858, in Oliver Wendell Holmes.[2][3] Carlyle (1851) used a vitality for something possessed of vital force.[2]

Timeline

  • 1592 – vital force, the principle of life.[2][4]
  • 1755 – Johnson: the power of subsisting in life.[8]
  • 1829 – of plants; the germinating power of seeds.[2]
  • 1844 – capacity for enduring and performing.[3]
  • 1848 – the capacity to go on existing or functioning.[2]
  • 1858 – mental or physical vigour, liveliness.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Physical or mental vigour; energy and liveliness: The young coach brought new vitality to the club.[9][4][2]
  2. The power to go on existing, living or growing; the capacity to survive or endure: the vitality of an old tradition.[9][4][2]
  3. The quality that distinguishes the living from the non-living; the vital force or principle of life.[4][9][2]
  4. The power of a seed to germinate.[4][2]

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 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 g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins