VICTORY

[Dr. Goodword]

• victory •

Pronunciation: vik-tê-ri • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. Triumph, conquest, the achievement of success over obstacles. 2. A win in a contest, the defeat of an enemy or opponent, as victory on the basketball court or battlefield.

Notes: The plural of today's Good Word is victories. (Don't forget [y] is replaced by .) It is derived from the agent noun, victor, the individual or collective that wins. The adjective is victorious and the adverb, victoriously.

In Play: In past wars victory was easily determined when the weaker nation surrendered to the victor: "Victory in Europe (V-E) Day celebrates the day, May 8, 1945, on which the Allies accepted the formal surrender of the German Army." Today this word is probably used more in sports than in military jargon: "The citizens of New Monia, Pennsylvania, celebrated the victory of their high school

Word History: English borrowed today's Good Word from Old French victorie (currently victoire) This word came from Latin victoria "victory", the quality noun from victor, which retained its meaning when borrowed by English. Latin victor is an agentive noun from victus, the past participle of vincere "to conquer". As you can see, the root had a 'fickle N' that comes and goes. It is present invanquish and invincible, which come ultimately from the present tense stem of vincere, but not in today's Good Word, which comes from the past participle.

[dougsmit]

The Romans were never convinced one way or another about spaces (or dots) between words. Sometimes they help; sometimes not.

" It is present invanquish and invincible, which come ultimately from the present tense stem of vincere, but not in today's Good Word, which comes from the past participle."

A typo only becomes noteworthy when it is followed by the same construction (in) in another use. May we use 'vincible' to mean not invincible? "It is present in vanquish and in vincible...

[Slava]

Interestingly, it comes out right in the e-mailed WOTD:

"It is present in'vanquish' and 'invincible'..."

[LukeJavan8]

Interestingly, it comes out right in the e-mailed WOTD:

"It is present in'vanquish' and 'invincible'..."

WOTD - isn't that 'the site that must not be named?"