Viz.
Template:Short description Template:Italic title Template:Redirect Template:Redirect Template:Sister project The abbreviation viz. (or viz without a full stop) is short for the Latin {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which itself is a contraction of the Latin phrase videre licet, meaning "it is permitted to see".<ref>Oxford English Dictionary</ref><ref>The New Fowler's Modern English Usage (revised third edition, 1998), pp. 825, 828.</ref><ref>American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (fourth edition, 2000), p. 1917</ref> It is used as a synonym for "namely", "that is to say", "to wit", "which is", or "as follows". It is typically used to introduce examples or further details to illustrate a point: for example, "all types of data viz. text, audio, video, pictures, graphics, can be transmitted through networking".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
EtymologyEdit
Template:Contains special characters Viz. is shorthand for the Latin adverb {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} using scribal abbreviation, a system of medieval Latin shorthand. It consists of the first two letters, vi, followed by the last two, et, using Template:Unichar.<ref>Template:Cite book According to Cobham Brewer, the same abbreviation mark was used for "habet" and "omnibus".</ref> With the adoption of movable type printing, the (then current) blackletter form of the letter Template:Angbr, <math>\mathfrak{z}</math>, was substituted for this symbol since few typefaces included it.<ref name=Hill>Template:Cite book</ref>
UsageEdit
In contrast to i.e. and e.g., viz. is used to indicate a detailed description of something stated before, and when it precedes a list of group members, it implies (near) completeness.
- Viz. is usually read aloud as "that is", "namely", or "to wit",<ref name="AMHER1917">The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (fourth edition, 2000), p. 1917.</ref> but is sometimes pronounced as it is spelled, viz.: Template:IPAc-en.
- Videlicet is pronounced Template:IPAc-en or Template:IPAc-en<ref name="AMHER1917" /> in English-speaking countries.
ExamplesEdit
- The intended meaning of his speech, viz. that our attitude was in fact harmful, was not understood.
- The later two problems, viz. his debt and his back pain, could not be so easily solved.
- "My grandfather had four sons who grew up, viz. Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josiah."<ref>The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin at Project Gutenberg.</ref>
- The noble gases, viz. helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon, show an unexpected behaviour when exposed to this new element.
Compared with scilicetEdit
Template:Anchor A similar expression is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, from earlier {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, abbreviated as sc., which is Latin for "it is permitted to know." Sc. provides a parenthetic clarification, removes an ambiguity, or supplies a word omitted in preceding text, while viz. is usually used to elaborate or detail text which precedes it.
In legal usage, scilicet appears abbreviated as ss. It can also appear as a section sign (§) in a caption, where it is used to provide a statement of venue, that is to say a location where an action is to take place.
Scilicet can be read as "namely," "to wit," or "that is to say," or pronounced Template:IPAc-en in English-speaking countries, or also anglicized as Template:IPAc-en.<ref>The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (fourth edition, 2000), p. 1560.</ref>