Viscount

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈvaɪ.kaʊnt/

Definitions

1. A British nobleman ranking above a baron and below an earl in the peerage system
2. A title of nobility in the British peerage system that designates a rank lower than an earl but higher than a baron
3. A noble rank within the aristocracy in the UK, situated between baron and earl in the hierarchy of titles

Etymology: Ancient Rome had no title quite like this one, yet the English word is built from two Latin pieces that describe the job plainly: "vice" meaning "in place of," and "comes," a companion or attendant of a ruler. The vicecomes was a deputy who stood in for a count, a sort of second-in-command who ran a region on the count's behalf. The Latin term passed into Medieval Latin as "vicecomes," and from there into Anglo-Norman as "viscounte." That French-speaking aristocracy brought the title to England, where it became a fixed rank in the peerage. Its relationship to "count" is therefore one of hierarchy inside a single office: the viscount was originally the official beneath the count, and English later placed the rank between baron and earl. Two related words followed the same route. "Vicomte" is the French form, and "vicecomes" survives in Latin records. English keeps the title in its older, more deferential spelling, with a pronunciation that has drifted far from the Latin.