vicarious
adjective
Did you know?
Vicarious Has Latin Roots
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.” Keeping in mind the most common meaning of vicarious (“experienced through imaginative or sympathetic participation”), you write it all down so others can share in your experience. Mission accomplished!
Examples of vicarious in a Sentence
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Commonweal, 14 June 2002
Most people caged in the humdrum routines of modern life are eager for vicarious glimpses of pain, joy, and especially vitality.
—Robert Jackall et al., Image Makers, 2000
There is an immense sub-middle class with enough money to preserve it from rancorous envy of the rich, but not enough to preserve it from boredom; it needs vicarious compensations and manages to find them in the gossip columns.
—Aldous Huxley, The Olive Tree, 1937
To give himself the vicarious illusion of companionship, he fell back on letters.
—Amy Lowell, John Keats, 1925
By means of ferocious jokes … he could vent his hatred of pioneer life and all its conditions, those conditions that were thwarting his creative life; he could, in this vicarious manner, appease the artist in him …
—Van Wyck Brooks, The Ordeal of Mark Twain, 1920
Zoe Guy, Vulture, 10 Oct. 2024
Alcon now seeks relief for monetary damages and accuses Tesla and WBD of direct copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, and false endorsement.
—Jibin Joseph, PCMAG, 22 Oct. 2024
Sony and other labels want the Supreme Court to reinstate the $1 billion verdict along with the jury's original finding that Cox was guilty of vicarious infringement.
—Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica, 18 Sep. 2024
While promising, Chew-Bose’s attractive but ultimately hollow debut offers audiences a vicarious vacation to the south of France, in which vivid sense memories are accompanied by words far too eloquent to have sprung from a 19-year-old’s head.
—Peter Debruge, Variety, 6 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for vicarious 
Dictionary Entries Near vicarious
Cite this Entry
“Vicarious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vicarious. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
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