Vichy
/ˈviːʃi/ name, noun, slang
name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Ellipsis of Vichy water. abbreviation, alt-of, colloquial, ellipsis
- 2 Labelling a regime that is traitorous or established in cooperation with a foreign or hostile power, especially in administration of occupied territory. attributive, derogatory
"More recently, a succession of novels, including Robert Harris's Fatherland, Resistance by Owen Sheers and CJ Sansom's Dominion – which imagines a Vichy Britain in 1952 ruled by Lord Beaverbrook and Oswald Mosley – have explored the same theme."
Proper Noun
- 1 A town in Allier department, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, France; the capital of Vichy France during World War II.
- 2 A town in Allier department, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, France; the capital of Vichy France during World War II.; Vichy France; the Vichy French government. figuratively, historical, metonymically
Example
More examples"The French resistance was vital to the war, but the Vichy government was not a foreign element imposed from the outside."
Etymology
Etymology 1
From French Vichy, from Occitan Vichèi, phonetically evolved from the Latin place name Vippiacus, itself named after an agricultural field belonging to a farmer named Vippius. An alternate theory attributes the name to the Latin vicus calidus, meaning "warm settlement."
Etymology 2
From Vichy France.