vicarious
1637, from L. vicarius "substitute, deputy" (adj. and n.), from vicis "turn, change, exchange, substitution," from PIE base *weik-, *weig- "to bend, wind" (cf. Skt. visti "changing, changeable;" O.E. wician "to give way, yield," wice "wych elm;" O.N. vikja "to bend, turn;" Swed. viker "willow twig, wand;" Ger. wechsel "change").
this is interesting to me because i intended to use the loose rhyme "icarus vicar(i)ous" in the story "moth-eaten." i wasn't sure it was appropriate because we usually use the word vicarious in the context of someone who "experiences" things from a distance, through the filter of another, i.e. "vicarious pleasure." icarus, on the other hand, is precisely NOT the observer; he is the anti-hesitant youth who flew to the sun and plummeted to the sea...
yet in the story "moth-eaten," the subject is divided into two, and one of them can be seen as a "substitute" or "deputy" (old original definition) of the subject, "vicariously" experiencing what the other half cannot. so in this sense, "icarus vicarious" is appropriate...
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