- Viz.
Viz. (also rendered viz without a period) and videlicet are adverbs used as synonyms of “namely, that is to say, as follows.”
Viz. is an abbreviation of videlicet, which is Latin for “it is permitted to see.” [
OED ; The New Fowler's Modern English Usage (revised third edition, 1998), pp. 825, 828.] 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.
Viz. is usually read as “namely” or “to wit,” but is sometimes pronounced as /viz/.
Videlicet is pronounced IPA|/vəˈdeləˌset/.
Scilicet can be read as “namely” or “to wit” or pronounced as IPA|/ˈsiləˌset/.
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 aglyph similar to the numeral 3 or theMiddle English letteryogh (approximately ʒ) although it was not related to either."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. [ [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/148 "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" at Project Gutenberg.] ]
References
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