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Origin and history of viscount

viscount(n.)

late 14c. (late 12c. as a surname), "deputy of a count or earl," in reference to England, "administrator in charge of a county, sheriff;" from Anglo-French and Old French visconte (Modern French vicomte), from Medieval Latin vicecomes (genitive vicecomitis), from Late Latin vice- "deputy" (see vice-) + Latin comes "member of an imperial court, nobleman" (see count (n.1)).

As a rank in British peerage, between earl and baron, by mid-15c. The French variant vicomte is attested in English by 1786. Related: Viscountess; viscountcy; viscountship.

also from late 14c.

Entries linking to viscount

count(n.1)

title of nobility in some continental nations, corresponding to English earl, c. 1300, from Anglo-French counte "count, earl" (Old French conte), from Latin comitem (nominative comes) "companion, attendant," the Roman term for a provincial governor, from com "with" (see com-) + stem of ire "to go" (from PIE root *ei- "to go"). The term was used in Anglo-French to render Old English eorl, but the word was never truly naturalized and mainly was used with reference to foreign titles.

In ancient Rome and the Roman empire, [a comes was] a companion of or attendant upon a great person; hence, the title of an adjutant to a proconsul or the like, afterward specifically of the immediate personal counselors of the emperor, and finally of many high officers, the most important of whom were the prototypes of the medieval counts. [Century Dictionary]
vice-

word-forming element of Latin origin meaning "deputy, assistant, substitute," also "instead of, in place of," 15c., from Medieval Latin use of Latin vice "in place of," ablative of vicis "a change, a turn, interchange alternation" (from PIE root *weik- (2) "to bend, to wind").

In Middle English it usually figures in words borrowed from French, sometimes in Old French form vis-, vi-. When attached to personal titles the sense of "acting as a deputy" tends to imply "subordinate in rank, second in rank to," which becomes explicit in vice-president.

*ei-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to go."

It might form all or part of: Abitur; adit; ambience; ambient; ambit; ambition; ambitious; andante; anion; cation; circuit; coitus; commence; commencement; concomitant; constable; count (n.1) title of nobility; county; dysprosium; errant; exit; initial; initiate; initiation; introit; ion; issue; itinerant; itinerary; janitor; January; Janus; Jena; Mahayana; obit; obituary; perish; praetor; Praetorian; preterite; sedition; sudden; trance; transient; transit; transitive; viscount.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit e'ti "goes," imas "we go," ayanam "a going, way;" Avestan ae'iti "goes," Old Persian aitiy "goes;" Greek ienai "to go;" Latin ire "to go," iter "a way;" Old Irish ethaim "I go," Irish bothar "a road" (from *bou-itro- "cows' way"), Gaulish eimu "we go;" Lithuanian eiti "to go;" Old Church Slavonic iti "go;" Bulgarian ida "I go;" Russian idti "to go;" Gothic iddja "went."

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