vigil

Meaning

Noun

• An instance of keeping awake during normal sleeping hours, especially to keep watch or pray.
• A period of observation or surveillance at any hour.
• The eve of a religious festival in which staying awake is part of the ritual devotions.
• A quiet demonstration in support of a cause.

Related

Similar words

• lookout, look-out, qui vive, watch

Origin

• From Middle English vigile ("a devotional watching"), from Old French vigile, from Latin vigilia ("wakefulness, watch"), from vigil, from Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- ("to be strong, lively, awake"). See also wake, from the same root.
• Related to vigor, and more distantly compare vis and vital, from similar Proto-Indo-European roots and meanings (lively, power, life), via Latin. For use of “live, alive” in sense “watching”, compare qui vive.