vital

adj

Etymology: From Middle English vital, from Old French vital, from Latin vītālis (“of life, life-giving”), from vīta (“life”), from vīvō (“to live”). Doublet of jiva and quick.

1. Relating to or characteristic of life.

   “vital energies; vital functions; vital actions”

   “But open converse is there none, ⁠So much the vital spirits sink ⁠To see the vacant chair, and think, ‘How good! how kind! and he is gone.’”

2. Necessary to the continuation of life; being the seat of life; being that on which life depends.

   “The brain is a vital organ.”

   “And doen the heavens afford him vitall food?”

3. Invigorating or life-giving.
4. Necessary to continued existence.

   “The transition to farming was vital for the creation of civilisation.”

5. Relating to the recording of life events.

   “Birth, marriage and death certificates are vital records.”

6. Very important.

   “It is vital that you don't forget to do your homework.”

   “David Cameron insists that his latest communications data bill is “vital to counter terrorism”. Yet terror is mayhem. It is no threat to freedom. That threat is from counter-terror, from ministers capitulating to securocrats.”

7. Containing life; living.

   “spirits that live throughout, vital in every part”

   “I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways.”

8. Lively, having vitality

   “Montreal is a charming vital city with a large lesbian and gay population which clusters around a neighborhood not far from the center of town.”

9. Capable of living; in a state to live; viable.

   “Pythagoras and Hippocrates […] affirming the birth of the seventh month to be vital.”

name

1. A surname.