[84]. Facciolati; Butler; Bowles, Don Quixote con Annotaciones.
Section XV.—Vinco.
The verb vinco (to conquer), the first syllable the same as our win, formed the present participle vincens, whence the name Vincentius (conquering), which was borne by two martyrs of the tenth persecution, one at Zaragoza, the other at Agen; and later by one of the great ecclesiastical authors at Lerius, in Provence. Thus Vincent, Vincente, Vincenzio, were national in France, Spain, and Italy, before the more modern saints, Vincente Ferrer, and Vincent de St. Paul, had enhanced its honours.
| English. | French. | Spanish. | Italian. | German. |
| Vincent | Vincent | Vincente | Vincenzio | Vincenz |
| Bavarian. | Russian. | Polish. | Bohemian. | Hungarian. |
| Zenz | Vikentij | Vincentij | Vincenc | Vincze |
| Zenzel |
Even the modern Greeks have it as Binkentios.
Conquest is a word found in all classes of names,—the Sieg of the Teuton, the Nikos of the Greek.
The past participle is victus; whence the conqueror is Victor—a name of triumph congenial to the spirit of early Christianity, and borne by an early pope as well as by more than one martyr, from whom Vittore descended as rather a favourite Italian name, though not much used elsewhere till the French Revolution, when Victor came into fashion in France. Tollo is the Roman contraction, as is Tolla of the feminine.
The original Victoria was a Roman virgin, martyred in the Decian persecution; whence the Italian Vittoria, borne by the admirable daughter of the Colonne, from whom France and Germany seem to have learned it, since after her time Victoire and Victorine became very common in France; and it was from Germany that we learnt the Victoria that will, probably, sound hereafter like one of our most national names.
Section XVI.—Vita.
Vita (life) was used by the Roman Christians to express their hopes of eternity; and an Italian martyr was called Vitalis, whence the modern Italian Vitale and German Veitel.