Meanings
plural vicinages
- archaiccountableuncountableA surrounding district; a neighbourhood.
She is the only flower of fragrance that has blown in this vicinage for ten years past, or will for ten years to come […].
1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXIV”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC2 more examples
but scarce had I drawn back mine arms, strained the outward flexure of my knee-joints, and was fixed in an apt disposure to take the corvetto primo and leap-valiant of the cour, when methought suddenly there came in and did appear before me mine ancient, most reverend and singular good friend, the rector of Saynt Andrew of S—, nearest in neighbourhood, but not of mine own cure, myself being of D— manor house in the same vicinage,—who astonished beyond measure at my so extasied gladness, demanded wherefore I did carry myself on this wise?
1843, Bernard M— (of S—), A Dream of a Queen's Reign, page 4It was as still as a church on a week-day: the pattering rain on the forest leaves was the only sound audible in its vicinage.
1848, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: an Autobiography, London: Smith, Elder, and Co. Cornhill, page 263 - archaiccountableuncountableThe people of a neighbourhood.
- countableuncountableThe state of living near something; proximity, closeness.
In the few years that she had lived here, a stranger herself, in some sort—not accustomed, as was her husband, to a lifelong vicinage to the pygmy burial-ground—she had developed no receptivity to that uncanny idea of a race of dwarfs.
1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, New York: Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, page 7 - New JerseycountableuncountablelawA geographical division of the New Jersey Superior Court, covering one or more counties, for judicial administration and the assignment of venue to an action within the Superior Court
- New JerseycountableuncountablelawA geographical division of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, covering several counties, for judicial administration and the assignment of venue to an action within the District Court
Origin
- Old Frenchvisnage
- Englishvicinage
From Old French visnage, respelled to more closer match its Latin source vīcīnus (“neighbor”). By surface analysis, vicine + -age.
More words from Old French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
vicinage. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vicinage
“vicinage.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vicinage. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vicinage,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vicinage.
Source: vicinage on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.