the.com/vow
a promise with teeth, binding you to a future self you haven't met yet
means A solemn, binding promise — usually one made with great seriousness, often sacred or ceremonial — committing you to do or refrain from something.
from From Old French 'vou' (a vow, promise), drawn from Latin 'votum,' meaning a vow or wish — literally 'a thing solemnly promised,' from 'vovere,' to pledge or dedicate. That same Latin root quietly powers 'vote' (a wish expressed) and 'devote' (to vow oneself wholly to). So a vow began as something offered up — a promise pressed toward the heavens, hoping they were listening.
- word root
- shares ancestry with Latin votum, a divine pledge
- monastic three
- poverty, chastity, obedience bind many religious orders
- vow of silence
- some monks go decades without speaking aloud
- legal weight
- marriage vows once made divorce nearly impossible
- hippocratic echo
- doctors swear an oath older than antibiotics
marriage vows — exchanged by couples in ceremonies worldwide, traditionally "til death do us part"
monastic vows — poverty, chastity, obedience taken by monks and nuns in religious orders since 6th century
oath of hippocrates — vow taken by physicians upon graduation, established ancient greece, still used today