5 February 2013

vicarious

[vahy-kair-ee-uhs, vi-]

adjective

1. performed, exercised, received, or suffered in place of another: vicarious punishment.
2. taking the place of another person or thing; acting or serving as a substitute.
3. felt or enjoyed through imagined participation in the experience of others: a vicarious thrill.
4. Physiology . noting or pertaining to a situation in which one organ performs part of the functions normally performed by another.

Origin:
1630–40; < Latin vicārius substituting, equivalent to vic ( is ) (genitive) interchange, alternation (see vice3 ), + -ārius -ary; see -ous

Related forms
vi·car·i·ous·ly, adverb
vi·car·i·ous·ness, vi·car·i·ism, noun
non·vi·car·i·ous, adjective
non·vi·car·i·ous·ly, adverb
non·vi·car·i·ous·ness, noun

Today’s aphorism

‘Destiny has two ways of crushing us – by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them’.

– Henri Frederic Amiel

On this day

5 February 1922 – Readers Digest first published by DeWitt and Lila Wallace.

5 February 2009 – China tells Canada not to accept 17 Chinese Uyghur prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. The Uyghurs had applied for refugee status in Canada. They had been arrested in Afghanistan during the 2001 US invasion.