V is for vim and vigor

The vocabulary.com reads:

"Vim is energy and enthusiasm. If you've got vim, then you probably pack a little extra oomph in your life!

"Vim is an odd-looking word, but it stands for a simple concept: being ready for activity, especially vigorous activity. Someone who is always playing sports or going on trips is full of vim. Someone who lies on the couch watching TV all day shows very little vim."

I've almost never seen the word vim stand alone.

The Word Detective agrees:

"One reason we were able to get along without 'vim' until the mid-18th century is that we already had 'vigor, and the two words are considered synonyms by most dictionaries. 'Vigor' does have more elaborated meanings..., but the basic sense underlying all such specialized meanings of 'vigor' is 'physical, mental or moral strength, vitality and enthusiasm,' which is about as close to 'vim' as you can get without stepping on its toes.

"'Vigor' had quite a head start on 'vim,' however, first appearing in English around 1300, drawn, via Old French, from the Latin 'vigere,' meaning 'to be lively, to thrive.'"

I always associated the phrase "vim and vigor" with the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. Indeed, from Novel Guide: Kennedy's campaign oratory, which often seemed to suggest that any problem could be solved if only enough vim and vigor were brought to bear on it.

But JFK's piece in Sports Illustrated, about fitness, mentions vigor or vigorous nine times, though vim does not appear at all.

I was thinking about JFK because May 29 would have been his 100th birthday, which I wrote about here.

I hope you have enough vim to visit a number of our participants this week, and indeed through the end of Round 20.

Then I trust you will have sufficient vigor to participate during Round 21 and beyond at ABC Wednesday's new home, which will be at https://abcwednesday.wordpress.com/
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