Also 4 vesinage, 7 vicenage, visinage. [ad. OF. visenage (visnage), vicenage, or voisinage (see VOISINAGE), with assimilation of the stem to the original L. vīcīn-us: cf. VICINITY.]
1. A number of places lying near to each other taken collectively; an area extending to a limited distance round a particular spot; a neighborhood.
Usu. with the, this, or similar word, but occasionally with a or in pl.
a. 1325. MS. Rawl. B. 520, fol. 55. Somune þoru gode somunse xii fre men ant trewe of vesinage of N.
1552. Huloet, Vicinage, vicinia, uicinetum.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., II. 136. King Ethelred … began the tryal of Causes by a Jury of twelve men to be chosen out of the Vicenage.
1685. in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 376. All our most able and Eminent Doctors of this Vicinage.
c. 1700. Pomfret, Poet. Wks. (1833), 37. Adam by an injured Maker driven From Eden’s groves, the vicinage of Heaven.
1777. W. Dalrymple, Trav. Sp. & Port., cxx. The regiments are … recruited from the vicinage.
1791. Burke, App. Whigs, Wks. VI. 122. The Metropolis and its Vicinage.
1813. C. Vancouver, Agriculture of Devon, 216. All such other parts of the district as at this time are … open to all the inhabitants of the vicinage.
a. 1853. W. Jay, Autobiog. (1854), iv. 37. So it was with the vicinages all around Marlborough.
1868. Lossing, Hudson, 1. The agricultural and mineral treasures of its vicinage.
b. Freq. in the phrase in the (also, this, our, etc.) vicinage.
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. II.), 182. I am afraid of a Potgun or a Squib; far from running upon Muskets and Swordpoints as they say in our Vicinage.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 394. No less than twenty thousand pounds worth of this coarse commodity [lime] is yearly made, and vended in the vicinage.
1676. Doctrine of Devils, 92. Until he have gotten the favour and blessing of all the Witches in the Vicinage, yea in the Hemisphere.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), I. xxxiv. 255. She is the only flower of fragrance, that has blown in this vicinage for ten years past.
1791. H. Walpole, Lett. to Misses Berry, 11 Sept. (1840), VI. 455. The French ladies in my vicinage.
1814. Scott, Wav., x. He had lived in retirement, conversing almost entirely with those of his own principles in the vicinage.
1861. Beresf. Hope, Eng. Cathedr. 19th C., viii. 274. The … recommendation of a sufficient population in the vicinage.
1883. Manch. Exam., 3 Oct., 5/4. People in the vicinage … were not in a mood to regard it as a gratuitous picturesque display.
fig. 1642. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., Disc. v. § 24. That soul that … invites an enemy to view its possessions and live in the vicinage, loves the sin itself.
c. transf. The people living in a certain district or neighborhood.
1647. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. lxvii. 262. Barrons shall be amerced by their Peeres, others by the vicinage.
1672. [H. Stubbe], Rosemary & Bayes, 17. I could wish they would not disturb the visinage with declamations against Mr. Calvin.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, i. Wks. VIII. 187. Where there is no constituted judge,… the vicinage itself is the natural judge.
1821. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 46. Relying, for influence, not on the good will of the vicinage, but upon the dread of their power.
1836. Ld. Cockburn, Jrnl. (1874), I. 122. Towns and their rustic vicinages are agitating against this measure.
1862. J. Thrupp, Anglo-Sax. Home, 269. The vicinage applied … to the bishop for leave to dig up the body and burn it.
2. The fact of being or living close to another or others; nearness, proximity: a. Of persons; spec. in Law as entitling to certain rights of common.
1598. Marston, Sco. Villanie, I. iii. 182. Ile winke at Robrus, that for vicinage Enters common, on his next neighbors stage.
1602. Fulbecke, 1st Pt. Parall., 14. If I prescribe to haue common because of vicinage in such a village.
1626. Daniel, Hist. Eng., Wks. (Grosart), IV. 101. By reason of the vicinage, and innumerous populacie of that Nation.
1679. J. Goodman, Penit. Pard., I. ii. (1713), 30. As if his father’s presence or vicinage would put too great a restraint upon him.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. 33. Common because of vicinage, or neighbourhood, is where the inhabitants of two townships, which lie contiguous to each other, have usually intercommoned with one another.
1823. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1830), 203. The tarred, trowsered, and blue-and-buff crew whose very vicinage I always detest.
1830. Mackintosh, Partition of Poland, Wks. 1846, II. 338. In a declaration delivered at Warsaw, Catherine declared, that she did nothing but in virtue of the right of vicinage, acknowledged by all nations.
1891. J. Winsor, Columbus, xvi. 357. St. Augustine, St. Basil, and St. Ambrose had placed the Garden of Eden far in the Old World’s east, apart from the common vicinage of men.
b. Of things or places.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, I. ix. 34. I began to guess the Reason of its Activity, as borrowed from the vicinage of the warmer Corpuscles.
1696. Whiston, The. Earth, IV. (1722), 356. The particular Prerogatives … do not entirely depend on … the Vicinage of the Central Heat.
1826. Cobbett, Poor Man’s Friend, ii. Are they, now, to complain, if the vicinage of these same works causes a charge of rates there?
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, VI. ii. The common white pottery … will not bear vicinage to a brisk kitchen fire for half-an-hour.
1880. Scribner’s Mag., March, 660/2. The vicinage of the traveling studio was an occasion and a pretext for unprecedented larks.
3. In the vicinage of, near or contiguous to, in the neighborhood of. Cf. VICINITY 4.
1782. Mrs. H. Cowley, Bold Stroke for Husb., V. ii. In the vicinage of Rosalvo, bounded on the west by the river.
1789. Trans. Soc. Arts, I. 151. If I had had any in the vicinage of my plantation.
1812. J. Henry, Camp. agst. Quebec, 99. The Canadians in the vicinage of Quebec lived as comfortably.
1830. Croly, George IV., 412. The length of canal navigation in the vicinage of London.
1852. H. Rogers, Ecl. Faith (1853), 151. They had become a centre and a source … of moral pestilence, in the vicinage of which it was unsafe for men to dwell.
