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Origin and history of vicar

vicar(n.)

c. 1300 (early 13c. as a surname), vicare, "one appointed to act as parish priest in place of a real parson," from Anglo-French vicar, vicer, Old French vicaire "deputy, second in command," also in the ecclesiastical sense (12c.), from Latin vicarius "a substitute, deputy, proxy," noun use of adjective vicarius "substituted, delegated," from vicis "change, interchange, succession; a place, position" (from PIE root *weik- (2) "to bend, to wind"). From late 14c. also "one designated as earthly representative of God or Christ," especially the Pope.

The original Vicar of Bray (in proverbial use by Fuller's time, 1660s) seems to have been Simon Allen, who held the benefice in Berkshire from c. 1540 to 1588, thus serving from the time of Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, being twice a Catholic, twice a Protestant, but always vicar of Bray.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to vicar

vicarage(n.)

early 15c., "benefice of a vicar;" mid-15c., "house or residence of a vicar;" from vicar + -age.

vicarious(adj.)

1630s, "taking the place of another," from Latin vicarius "that supplies a place; substituted, delegated," from vicis "a change, exchange, interchange; succession, alternation, substitution" (from PIE root *weik- (2) "to bend, to wind"). Compare vicar.

It is attested by 1690s as "done or experienced in place of another" (usually in reference to punishment, often of Christ); by 1925 (implied in vicariously) as "experienced imaginatively through another." Related: Vicariousness.

Earlier in physiology, of organs, "performing the function normally belonging to another, compensatory" (1780). Middle English used Anglicized vicari as "substituted, vicarious" (c. 1400) and from sense in the Latin adjective 17c. English writers formed vicarial "delegated, deputed," vicarian "governed by a deputy."

*weik-(2)

also *weig-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to bend, to wind."

It might form all or part of: vetch; vicar; vicarious; vice- "deputy, assistant, substitute;" viceregent; vice versa; vicissitude; weak; weakfish; week; wicker; wicket; witch hazel; wych.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit visti "changing, changeable;" Old English wac "weak, pliant, soft," wician "to give way, yield," wice "wych elm," Old Norse vikja "to bend, turn," Swedish viker "willow twig, wand," German wechsel "change."

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    The word reached wide currency through Lady Blarney, the smooth-talking flatterer in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield" (1766...
    reverend
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    esprit
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    priest
    Middle English prēst, "cleric ranking below a bishop and above a deacon, a parish priest," from Old English preost, which probably was shortened from the older Germanic form represented by Old Saxon and Old High German prestar, Old Frisian prestere, all from Vulgar Latin *prester
    sprite
    c. 1300, sprit, formerly also spright, a doublet of spirit (n.) in any of its then-current senses, from Old French esprit "spirit," from Latin spiritus (spirit (n.) retains the Latin form). So in Middle English and after sprite could mean "breath; the principle of life; the Holy
    stripe
    "a line or band of a different color in cloth," early 15c., from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German stripe "stripe, streak," from Proto-Germanic *stripan (source also of Danish stribe "a striped fabric," German Streifen "stripe"). These are said to be from a PIE root *strig- "to s
    dusk
    "partial darkness, state between light and darkness, twilight," 1620s, from an earlier adjective dusk, from Middle English dosc (c. 1200) "obscure, not bright; tending to darkness, shadowy," having more to do with color than light, which is of uncertain origin, not found in Old E
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    Middle English nede, from Old English nied (West Saxon), ned (Mercian) "what is required, wanted, or desired; necessity, compulsion, the constraint of unavoidable circumstances; duty; hardship, emergency, trouble, time of peril or distress; errand, business," originally "violence
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    mid-14c., "demon;" late 14c., "a ragged lout," also in surnames (Isabella Ragamuffyn, 1344), from Middle English raggi "ragged" ("rag-y"?) + "fanciful ending" [OED], or else perhaps second the element is Middle Dutch muffe "mitten." Or, as Johnson has it, "From rag and I know not

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