videlicet
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Latin vidēlicet, which itself is a contraction of vidēre licet, meaning "it is permitted to see".
Pronunciation edit
Often read out in translation as namely or to wit.
Adverb edit
videlicet (not comparable)
- Namely, to wit, that is to say (used when clarifying or naming the preceding item or topic)
- 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford:
- My father did speak much of the day he was not speedily to forget, videlicet May Day of 1517, when there was great apprentice rioting against insolent foreigners.
Usage notes edit
Where videlicet is carefully distinguished from scilicet, viz. is used to provide glosses and sc. to provide omitted words or parenthetic clarification.
Synonyms edit
- See namely
Latin edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
A contraction of vidēre licet (“[it] is permitted to see”).[1] Cf. scīlicet.
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /u̯iˈdeː.li.ket/, [u̯ɪˈd̪eːlʲɪkɛt̪]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /viˈde.li.t͡ʃet/, [viˈd̪ɛːlit͡ʃet̪]
Adverb edit
vidēlicet (not comparable)
- Videlicet: namely, to wit, that is to say
- c. 1300, Tractatus de Ponderibus et Mensuris:
- Per Ordinacionem tocius regni Anglie fuit mensura Domini Regis composita videlicet quod denarius qui vocatur sterlingus rotundus & sine tonsura ponderabit triginta duo grana frumenti in medio Spice.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- clearly, evidently
References edit
- “videlicet”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “videlicet”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- videlicet in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- ^ American Heritage Dictionary, 5th ed. "vi·del·i·cet". Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.