Table of Contents
The word for today is…
vicarious (adjective):
1: experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another
2a: serving instead of someone or something else
b: that has been delegated
3: performed or suffered by one person as a substitute for another or to the benefit or advantage of another : substitutionary
4: occurring in an unexpected or abnormal part of the body instead of the usual one
Source : Merriam -Webster
Etymology : If you love to read adventure tales from the comfort of home, you’re already a pro at living vicariously, so throw on those readers and let us paint a picture. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to study language and share what you’ve learned with the world. You wake up and pour yourself a strong cup of coffee, and then the work begins. Today, you are tasked with understanding the history of vicarious. Your research confirms that this word originally described something having the function of a substitute—that is, something that serves instead of another thing—and that it comes from the Latin noun vicis, which means “change” or “stead.” What’s more, you learn that vicis is also the source of the English prefix vice- (as in “vice president”), meaning “one that takes the place of.”
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