Dictionary

viaticum en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /vʌɪˈatɪkəm/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From Latin viāticum (“travelling-money, provisions for a journey”), from viāticus (“of a road or journey”), from via (“road”). Doublet of voyage.

Meanings

1. (especially) The Eucharist, when given to a person who is dying or one in danger of death.
   • […]from Anglo-Saxon times there had been a deep conviction that to receive the viaticum was a virtual death sentence which would make subsequent recovery impossible. 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (nonfiction), Folio Society; republished as Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England, Penguin Books, 2003, →ISBN, page 37:
2. (figuratively, often) Provisions, money, or other supplies given to someone setting off on a long journey.
   • That viaticum I had been made to drink had undoubtedly been spiked with cantharides or something. 1971, Anthony Burgess, M/F (fiction), Jonathan Cape; republished Penguin Books, 2004, →ISBN, page 184:
   • Towards night-fall he entered a town called Sa’adiyah where he alighted and took out somewhat of his viaticum and ate. 1885, “Night 20”, in Sir Richard Burton, transl., The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (fiction), Kama Shastra Society, translation of أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ [ʔalfu laylatin walaylatun, One Thousand and One Nights] (in Arabic); republished 1978, →ISBN:
3. A portable altar.

Forms

Translations (25)

non leiðarnest (Eucharist) · sv vägkost (supplies for journey) · de Viatikum (Eucharist) · sv resepenning (supplies for journey) · tr kumanya (supplies for journey) · pl dieta (supplies for journey) · es viático (supplies for journey) · sv viaticum (supplies for journey) · fr viatique (supplies for journey) · tr nevale (supplies for journey) · ca viàtic (Eucharist) · da viaticum (Eucharist) · pl wiatyk (Eucharist) · bg последно причастие (Eucharist) · it viatico (supplies for journey) · nl viaticum (Eucharist) · it viatico (Eucharist) · eo viatiko (Eucharist) · bg храна за из път (supplies for journey) · sv viaticum (Eucharist) · non nest (supplies for journey) · fr viatique (Eucharist) · tr yolluk (supplies for journey) · es viático (Eucharist) · tr azık (supplies for journey)