Forms: 4– vigour, 4–5 vigoure, 4–6 vygour, 6 vygure, vygueur, vigeur, 7 viger; 5 vigore, 6 vygor, 4–8, 9 U.S. vigor. [a. AF. vigur, vigour, OF. vigor (vigheur, etc.; later and mod.F. vigueur, = Pr., Sp., Pg. vigor, It. vigore), ad. L. vigōr-, vigor liveliness, activity, force, f. vigēre to be lively, to thrive, flourish, etc. In some instances directly ad. L. vigor.]
1. Active physical strength as an attribute or quality of living things; active force or power; activity or energy of body or constitution.
a. In persons, animals or their limbs.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 971. Inwyth not a fote, To strech in þe strete þou has no vygour, Bot þou wer clene withouten mote.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Man of Law’s T., 845. I seye this entente That right as god spirit of vigour sente To hem, and saued hem out of meschance, So sente he myght and vigour to Custance.
c. 1400. Sowdone Bab., 2738. There was no man durst hem assayle, For drede of here vigour.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, V. xii. Thenne the dogge toke strengthe and vygour ageyne.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 256 b. Bycause [he] wolde shewe hym selfe more than man, he wolde, after that all his blode was shed, reserue in hym vygour and vertue of lyfe.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. iii. 305. As motion and long during action tyres The sinnowy vigour of the trauailer.
1608. Willet, Hexapla Exod., 259. His naturall strength or vigor was not abated.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 436. Now we find this our Empyreal forme … Inperishable, and though peirc’d with wound, Soon closing, and by native vigour heal’d.
1680–90. Temple, Ess., Health & Long Life, Wks. 1720, I. 278. That the Natives and Inhabitants of hilly and barren Countries have not only more Health in general, but also more Vigour than those of the Plains.
1717. Prior, Alma, II. 128. Thus He who runs or dances, begs The equal Vigor of Two Legs.
1775. Harris, Philos. Arrangem. (1841), 289. Health and sickness, vigour and decay, are all to be found … in each individual of the human race.
1783. Crabbe, Village, II. 132. When Honour lov’d and gave thee every charm, Fire to thy eye and vigour to thy arm.
1832. Tennyson, Œnone, 158. So that my vigour, wedded to thy blood, Shall strike within thy pulses.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 113. And this is the cause that prevents the return of vigour to my body.
1888. Goode, Amer. Fishes, 276. The Muskellunge, Esox nobilior, is the rival of the Pike in size and vigor.
transf. 1501. in Dunbar’s Poems (S.T.S.), lxxxviii. 19. London, thou art the flour of Cities all;… Strong Troy in vigour and in strenuytie.
† b. Freq. in ME. verse in the adverbial phrase with (…) vigour. Also in pl. Obs.
13[?]. K. Alis., 1431 (Linc.). Boþe wiþ coyntise, and wiþ vigour, He wan of þat lond þe honour.
13[?]. Cour de L., 1936. And ever men bare them up with levours, And slew them with great vigours.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 2322. Now habbeþ þes frensche lordes stoute conquered þe stronge tour, And habbeþ a-slawe & dryuen oute þe Sarsynz with vygour.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 13330. The vanwardis met with gret hidoure, Thei rod to-gedur with gret vigoure.
c. In plants or vegetable growths.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. iii. 209. Nature is contented to give them vigour to bring forth fruites.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, xxix. 90. It should be in this status, vigour and perfection of Trees, that a Felling should be celebrated.
1706. London & Wise, Retir’d Gard., I. 181. That the Branches for Wood may not shoot out with so much Vigour.
1731. P. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Vitis, The Vines … must be annually dress’d, according to the Vigour of the Plant.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 33. The more vigour there is in a tree,… the sooner is its alburnum made perfect wood.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 470. In order … to equalise the production of fruit, and maintain a sufficient degree of vigour in the vines.
1856. Stanley, Sinai & Pal., vii. (ed. 3), 286. The tropical temperature, calling out into almost unnatural vigour whatever vegetation receives the life-giving touch of its waters.
d. Const. of (life, etc.). Sometimes with implication of next. Also fig.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. i. Before I touch The banks of rest, my ghost shall visite her. Thou vigor of my youth, iuyce of my loue, Seize on reuenge.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. i. Wks. 1874, I. 29. These surely prove even greater vigour of life than bodily strength does.
1874. Green, Short Hist., v. § 1. 212. The vigour of English life showed itself socially in the wide extension of commerce.
2. Mental or moral strength, force or energy; activity, animation or liveliness of the mind or the faculties.
1587. W. Fowler, Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 22. In his youthe at that tyme when the senses hes most force and vigeur.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 197. I considered, that those kindes of gaining onely required strength of body, whereas this and the like required also vigor of minde.
1677. Temple, Ess., Gout, Wks. 1720, I. 135. The vigour of the Mind decays with that of the Body.
1748. Gray, Alliance, 11. Those kindly cares, That health and vigour to the soul impart.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer., VI. Wks. 1851, V. 584. A race of men … in their bodily constitution, as well as vigour of spirit, nearly resembling the warlike tribes in North America.
1823. J. Gillies, trans. Aristotle’s Rhet., II. xiv. 308. The mind retains its utmost vigour to forty-nine.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, ii. Leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigour.
1856. Sir B. Brodie, Psychol. Inq., I. i. 6. He had lost none of his intellectual vigour.
3. Active force or strength as an attribute of things, natural agencies, conditions or qualities; intensity of effect or operation.
a. 1445[?]. [? Gascoign], Life St. Bridget, in Kal. Leg. England (Pynson), 125. Nat dredying the vigour of the colde nor the impedyment of the great hete.
1534–5. More, Treat. Sacrament (1576), 61. Although we beleeue it, yet is that beliefe in many of vs very faint & farre fro the point of suche vigour and strength, as would God it had.
1554. W. Prat, Africa, C viij b. Moystnes shed by nyght and by the vygueur of the sonne.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., IV. iv. 81. My bones beares witnesse, That since haue felt the vigor of his rage.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., VI. 293. The vigour of the day gone, and the cooling night come, we aduanced.
1638. Bp. Wilkins, New World, XIV. (1707), 119. The Loadstone does cast forth its own Vigour round about its Body.
1653. W. Ramesey, Astrologie Restored, 72. Moreover a Planet that is hot and dry, is lessened of his vigour in a term that is cold and moyst.
1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 243. If at the turn of the disease the fever assumes new vigour,… the patient must be bled.
1798. Ferriar, Illustr. Sterne, i. 12. They bad seen absurdity in its full vigour.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, xliv. Her enthusiasm was continually stirred to fresh vigour by the influence of Savonarola.
1880. Ruskin, Arrows of Chace, I. xii. The crystalline vigour of a truth.
b. Of drugs, medicaments, wine, etc.
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, xx. (1870), 280. Borage … doth set a man in temporaunce. And so doth buglosse, for he is taken of more vygor, & strength, & effycacye.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 43/1. This salve must be præpared before you annoynct your heade, and it continueth in his vigor two yeares after other.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. v. 68. And with a sodaine vigour it doth posset And curd … The thin and wholsome blood.
1664. Evelyn, Pomona, xxix. It is a laudable way of trying the vigour of Cider by its promptness to burn.
c. Of words, arguments, etc.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 813/2. Some thinges yet shal I shew you … in thys laste booke besyde, that shal haue such vygour and strength therin, that [etc.].
1581. Pettie, Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., II. (1586), 57. It is certaine that a sentence hath so much the more or lesse force and vigor, according to the difference of persons from whom it commeth, and of the words by which it is uttered.
1596. Edward III., I. i. 44. The fiery vigor of thy words.
d. As an artistic or literary quality.
1774. Mitford, Ess. Harmony Lang., 135. Vigor is added by the rapid flow of the short syllables.
1849. Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, iii. § 23. 91. The relative majesty of buildings depends more on the weight and vigour of their masses, than on any other attribute of their design.
1873. E. Spon, Workshop Receipts, Ser. I. 255/1. If … the whole picture is wanting in vigour and contrast, it is caused by over-exposure.
1896. H. Holiday, Stained Glass, i. 24. The painter has … to repeat the two matt processes till he has obtained the necessary vigour and depth in his work.
4. Legal or binding force; validity. In vigo(u)r, in force or operation.
1425. Rolls of Parlt., IV. 277/1. But þat neverþeles þappointement stand in al thyngs unhirte, and in his vigor and strengthe. Ibid. (1455), 329/2. That the saide Lettres Patentes be … in al such force, vigore and effect.
1644. Milton, Judgm. Bucer, xxii. 6. Neither did she know the vigor of the Gospel, wherin all cause of marying is debarr’d from women, while their husbands live.
1654. Bramhall, Just Vind., i. (1661), 4. Secondly,… in abandoning the Court of Rome they make not any new Law, but onely declare and restore the old Law of the Land to its former Vigour.
1678. Sir G. Mackenzie, Crim. Laws Scot., I. xxiv. § 2 (1699), 120. Then the former Act … was in vigour, and so the Lords could not restrict the annualrents to six [per cent], against an expresse Law.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. II. 201. The Five Mile Act and the Conventicle Act were in full vigour.
5. Strong or energetic action, esp. in administration or government; the power, exercise or use of this, esp. as possessed by or as an attribute of a ruler or governor.
Freq. implying some degree of severity or rigor.
c. 1618. Moryson, Itin., IV. III. iii. 279. The Cantons of Sweitzerland,… by inviolable observation of theire leagues, constantly governed theire Commonwealth in the old viger.
1712. Spect., No. 467, ¶ 9. Never failing to exert himself with Vigour and Resolution in the Service of his Prince.
1741. C. Middleton, Cicero, I. iv. 234. The vigor of his Consulship had raised such a zeal and union of all the honest in the defense of the laws.
a. 1781. R. Watson, Philip III., II. (1783), 143. When they reflected on the vigour and great abilities he had exerted during this campaign.
1830. D’Israeli, Chas. I., III. v. 64. The Star Chamber … was invested with a vigour beyond the laws.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, xiii. The slaying of the guide was of course ensy enough, and would look like an act of what politicians call ‘vigour.’
1874. Green, Short Hist., vii. § 4. 375. The issue of the Scotch war revealed suddenly to Europe the vigour of Elizabeth.
b. In wider use: Force, heartiness, energy.
1908. [Miss E. Fowler], Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 365. It was sung … with much vigour by the congregation.
6. The condition or state of greatest strength or activity, esp. in the life of a man; spec. in Med., the height or acme of a disease.
1563. T. Gale, Enchirid., 35 b (Stanf.). There is another excellent plaster which Galene vseth in the Vigour of an inflammation.
1588. Kyd, Househ. Philos., Wks. (1901), 244. They are in the vigor of their yeeres when the youth of their sonnes begin to flourish.
1656. J. Smith, Pract. Phys., 153. [As a remedy for thirst, take] the decoction of the Roots of Sorrel, which will look like red Wine; Give drink in the vigour.
1697. Bentley, Phal. (1699), 78. He was then in the Vigour of his years.
1771. Encycl. Brit., III. 66/2. When this disease is at its state, or vigor, all the symptoms are worse.
1798. Ferriar, Illustr. Sterne, ii. 52. A work produced in the vigour of his fancy.
1822. Lamb, Elia, I. Distant Correspondents. Your puns and small jests are … extremely circumscribed in their sphere of action…. Their vigour is as the instant of their birth.
1841. D’Israeli, Amen. Lit. (1867), 544. Shakespeare, in the vigour of life, withdrew from the theatre and the metropolis.
1855. Brewster, Newton, II. xxvii. 399. The flower of his youth, and the vigour of his manhood, were entirely devoted to science.
† 7. By or in vigour of, by force of, in virtue of. Obs. rare.
1636. Brathwait, Rom. Emp., 383. Who … refused to performe homage in vigour of a cession made by Albertus the Arch-Duke.
1641. Heylin, Hist. Episc., II. (1657), 366. By vigour of his Episcopall function and the Authority of his Chaire, he had power enough, to be straightway avenged of him for the same.
