Word of the Day

: March 11, 2018

scilicet

adverb SKEE-lih-ket

What It Means

: that is to say : to wit, namely

scilicet in Context

The organization's charter clearly states that "any changes to the structure of the organization's meetings must be unanimously approved by the executive board, scilicet, the chair and the board's six other members."

"Their objection—they claimed—was to the parcelling out of the top state jobs among the political (scilicet: the other political) parties." — The Economist, 13 Jan. 1979

Did You Know?

Scilicet is a rare word that most often occurs in legal proceedings and instruments. It is from Latin scire ("to know") and licet ("it is permitted"), which is also a root of videlicet—a synonym of scilicet. Licet, in turn, descends from the Latin verb licēre, which means "to be permitted" and is the ultimate source of the English words leisure, by way of the Anglo-French leisir ("to be permitted"), and license, which comes to us through Anglo-French from the Latin licens, the present participle of licēre. Scire has also made other contributions to English, giving us such words as conscience, conscious, and science.