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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Vocabulary

Viz?

Hello. I would like to know your opinion about the use of 'viz' , or 'viz.', instead of 'namely'.

It seems to me that the former is much formal than the latter. Is this true? Or may I use 'viz' and 'namely' in the same paragraph without changing the tone of the text?

Thank you.
  

Top answer

I never hear or read viz in modern English. To me, it strikes an old-fashioned, almost archaic tone. My advice is to avoid using it.

— Clive

  • I never hear or read viz in modern English.
  • To me, it strikes an old-fashioned, almost archaic tone.
  • My advice is to avoid using it.
  • Clive
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4 Answers
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I never hear or read viz in modern English. To me, it strikes an old-fashioned, almost archaic tone.
My advice is to avoid using it.

Clive
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Thank you.

Indeed, I have seen it in only one published text (scholarly article), whose author is not a native English speaker.

I wonder why proofreaders did not change the text, as the journal in question is quite famous (in my country, the proofreader would probably change it to avoid an unnatural style).
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'Viz' is just fine in a scholarly article.
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vis: I can’t believe even the Internet lets me down on this one. Yet, it’s as if it had been poorly deleted… When you type vis: (with the colon) you’ll be tantalized with “namely” (which is how I remember it from school). Yet it is given all sorts of scientific meanings instead within the dictionaries. It is Latin. In my thesaurus, I have it within “Interpretation” and “diagnosis” and “equival
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