vigils
plural of vigil
Source: Wiktionary
Vig"il, n. Etym: [OE. vigile, L. vigilia, from vigil awake, watchful, probably akin to E. wake: cf. F. vigile. See Wake, v. i., and cf. Reveille, Surveillance, Vedette, Vegetable, Vigor.]
1. Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state of being awake, or the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. "Worn out by the labors and vigils of many months." Macaulay. Nothing wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card table and those cutting passions which attend them. Addison.
2. Hence, devotional watching; waking for prayer, or other religious exercises. So they in heaven their odes and vigils tuned. Milton. Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate. Neale (Rhythm of St. Bernard).
3. (Eccl.) (a) Originally, the watch kept on the night before a feast. (b) Later, the day and the night preceding a feast. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors, And say, "To-morrow is St. Crispian." Shak.
(c) A religious service performed in the evening preceding a feast. Vigils, or Watchings, of flowers (Bot.), a peculiar faculty belonging to the flowers of certain plants of opening and closing their petals as certain hours of the day. [R.]
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
21 June 2025
(noun) the condition of being deprived of oxygen (as by having breathing stopped); “asphyxiation is sometimes used as a form of torture”
The word “coffee” entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch “koffie,” borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish “kahve,” borrowed in turn from the Arabic “qahwah.” The Arabic word qahwah was traditionally held to refer to a type of wine.
