VIC VIC VIC

I noticed something interesting.

The Vic in victory and victim are directly related.

Victory comes from the latin verb vincere, to conquer, or to prevail

Vini, Vidi, Vici.

Remember?

I came, I saw, I conquered.

(By the way Vici is pronounced VIKI), the C is hard in Latin

The verb vincere, (which also gives us the name Vincent, BTW)

So, Vici, I conquered.

Victus, is (The one that has been conquered)

INvictus (Can not be conquered)

Victum, is the supine or perfect passive participle stem of vincere.

In plain terms, it means “having been conquered”

Interestingly, victum describes a state after force has been applied.

It does not carry moral weight.

It does not imply innocence or blame. It simply records outcome.

Something was overcome.

Post bellum civitatem victum Romani occupaverunt.

After the war, the Romans occupied the city, having been conquered.

So

Victus answers: what happened.

Victima on the other hand, answers: who was subjected.

A description of the defeated

And this tells us a lot about the Roman ethos.

Conquest was so fundamental to them that the verb carries no moral weight.

It is was “normal” to conquer, to expand.

Without having to feel guilty about it.

Isn’t it awesome how deep one can read into language beyond simply reading language.