And who had Canace to wife,
That owned the virtuous ring and glass.
Milton, Il Penseroso.
Tho lifting up his vertuous staffe on hye
He smote the sea, which calmèd was with speed.
Spenser, Fairy Queen, ii. 12, 26.
| Vivacious, | } |
| Vivacity. |
‘Longevity’ is a comparatively modern word. ‘Vivacity,’ which has now acquired the mitigated sense of liveliness, served instead of it; keeping in English the original sense which ‘vivacitas’ had in the Latin.
James Sands, of Horborn in this county, is most remarkable for his vivacity, for he lived 140 years.—Fuller, Worthies of England: Staffordshire.
Fables are raised concerning the vivacity of the deer; for neither are their gestation nor increment such as may afford an argument of long life.—Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors.