the.com/vice
the gap between what you swore and what you did at 2am
means A bad habit or moral failing you indulge despite knowing better — or, in a tool, a clamp that grips something tight.
from From Latin 'vitium,' meaning a fault, defect, or blemish, which gave Old French 'vice' before it reached English. The two modern senses split from the same root: the moral 'vice' (a flaw in character) and the gripping 'vice' (a defect-correcting tool that holds fast). The clamp sense may also have been colored by Latin 'vitis,' the spiraling vine, echoing the screw's twist — a likely influence rather than a proven one.
- latin root
- vitium meant flaw or defect, not sin
- the tool
- a vice also clamps things hard and still
- vice president
- same word: a deputy, a stand-in spare
- vice squad
- police units literally chase human weakness
- taxed heavily
- governments quietly profit from every guilty pleasure
miami vice — tv series starring don johnson and philip michael thomas, aired 1984-1989
vice magazine — media company founded in montreal in 1994 by suroosh alvi
vice grip — clamping tool trademarked by irwin industrial tools, used in workshops worldwide