# vigil
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English vigile (“a devotional watching”), from Old French vigile, from Latin vigilia (“wakefulness, watch”), from vigil (“awake”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be strong, lively, awake”). Doublet of Wigilia. See also wake and vigor, from the same root.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈvɪd͡ʒəl/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪdʒəl

### Noun

vigil (plural vigils)
* An instance of keeping awake during normal sleeping hours, especially to keep watch or pray.
** 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 149:I saw her head drooped upon her hand; her whole attitude expressing that profound depression, whose lonely vigil wastes the midnight in a gloomy watch, which yet hopes for nothing at its close.
** 2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Fleet (2017), page 165:Eventually the body trade grew so reckless that relatives took to holding graveside vigils, lest their loved ones disappear in the night.
** 2024 September 5, Isabella Kwai, John Yoon, Rebecca Cheptegei, Olympic Runner From Uganda, Dies After Gasoline Attack‎, The New York Times:A vigil was held for Ms. Cheptegei on Wednesday night, Ms. Indimuli said, with many women praying that she would survive.
* A period of observation or surveillance at any hour.
    His dog kept vigil outside the hospital for eight days while he was recovering from an accident.
* The eve of a religious festival in which staying awake is part of the ritual devotions.
* A quiet demonstration in support of a cause.
    The protesters kept vigil outside the conference centre in which the party congress was being held.

#### Synonyms

* (watch, especially at night): lookout, look-out, qui vive, watch

#### Derived terms

* candlelight vigil
* coma vigil
* keep vigil

#### Related terms

* vigilance
* vigilant
* vigilation
* vigilous

#### Translations
### Verb

vigil (third-person singular simple present vigils, present participle vigiling, simple past and past participle vigiled)
* To participate in a vigil.
** 1985 August 17, Loie Hayes, “Lesbian 'Shadow Painters' Join in Nuclear Protest”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 6, page 1:As the arrested painters and their supporters waited out their "day in court," other activists distributed Hiroshima information leaflets, vigiled silently with placards and banners, and marched 500-strong through downtown Boston to a rally at City Hall Plaza.

## Latin
### Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be strong, lively, awake”), whence vigeō.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈu̯i.ɡil/, [ˈu̯ɪɡɪɫ̪]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈvi.d͡ʒil/, [ˈviːd͡ʒil]

### Adjective

vigil (genitive vigilis); third-declension one-termination adjective
* awake, watching, alert

#### Declension

Third-declension one-termination adjective.

### Noun

vigil m (genitive vigilis); third declension
* watchman, guard, sentinel; constable, fireman; angel
* (in the plural) the watch, police, constabulary

#### Declension

Third-declension noun.

#### Derived terms

* vigilia
* vigilō

#### Descendants

* French: vigile
* Irish: feighil
* Italian: vigile
* Piedmontese: vìgil
* Portuguese: vígil
* Romanian: vigil, veghe

### References

* “vigil”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “vigil”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* vigil in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 677-8