6 June 2013

vigilant

[vij-uh-luhnt]

adjective

1. keenly watchful to detect danger; wary: a vigilant sentry.
2. ever awake and alert; sleeplessly watchful.

Origin:
1470–80; < Latin vigilant- (stem of vigilāns ), present participle of vigilāre to be watchful. See vigil, -ant

Related forms
vig·i·lant·ly, adverb
vig·i·lant·ness, noun
hy·per·vig·i·lant, adjective
hy·per·vig·i·lant·ly, adverb
hy·per·vig·i·lant·ness, noun

Can be confused: vigilant, vigilante.

Synonyms
2. wide-awake, sleepless. See alert.

Antonyms
1. careless.

Today’s aphorism

‘Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will’.

– Frederick Douglass

On this day

6 June 1944 – D-day (Operation Overlord), when the Allies launch a massive invasion of Europe to combat the German war machine. Over a million troops from Allied troops storm the beaches of Normandy.