Viz.

Viz. (also rendered viz without a period) and the adverb videlicet are used as synonyms for "namely", "that is to say", and "as follows".

Background

Viz. is an abbreviation of videlicet, which itself is a contraction from Latin of "videre licet" meaning "it is permitted to see."^[1][2][3] Both forms introduce a specification or description of something stated earlier; this is often a list preceded by a colon (:). Although both forms survive in English, viz. is far more common than videlicet.

A similar expression is scilicet, abbreviated as sc., which is Latin for "it is permitted to know". Viz. is usually used to elaborate or detail text which precedes it, while sc. provides a parenthetic clarification, removes an ambiguity, or supplies a word omitted in preceding text. In legal usage, scilicet often appears abbreviated as SS. or § in a caption providing a statement of venue and is read as "to wit".^[4]

• Viz. is usually read aloud as "that is", "namely", or "to wit",^[5] but is sometimes pronounced as /vɪz/.^{[citation needed]}

• Videlicet is pronounced /vɪˈdɛlɨsɛt/ or /wɪˈdeɪlɨkɛt/.^[5]

• Scilicet can be read as "namely," "to wit," or "that is to say," or pronounced /ˈsɪlɨsɛt/ or /ˈskiːlɨkɛt/.^[6]

Etymology and original usage

Viz. is the medieval scribal abbreviation for videlicet. It is the letters v and i followed by the common medieval Latin contraction for et and -et, which was a glyph similar to the numeral 3 or the Middle English letter yogh (Ȝ) although it was not related to either.^{[note 1]}

Videlicet is a contraction of Classical Latin vidēre licet, which meant "it may be seen, evidently, clearly" (vidēre, to see; licet, third person singular present tense of licēre, to be permitted). In Latin, videlicet was used to confirm a previous sentence or to state its contrary.

Examples

• The main point of his speech, viz. that our attitude was in fact harmful, was not understood.
• My grandfather had four sons that grew up, viz.: Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josiah.^[7]

Notes

References

1. ^ OED
2. ^ The New Fowler's Modern English Usage (revised third edition, 1998), pp. 825, 828.
3. ^ American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (fourth edition, 2000), p. 1917
4. ^ Black's Law Dictionary (sixth edition, 1990), p. 1403.
5. ^ ^{a b} AMHER (fourth edition, 2000), p. 1917.
6. ^ AMHER (fourth edition, 2000), p. 1560.
7. ^ The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin at Project Gutenberg.

External links

Look up viz. or videlicet in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.