The abbreviation of "videlicet" is "viz," and people often wonder how the "z" got there. There is no "z" in the word's Latin roots, viderē ("to see") and "licet" ("it is permitted"). As it turns out, the "z" in "viz" originally wasn't a "z" at all. It was a symbol that looked like a "z" and that was used in medieval manuscripts to indicate the contraction of Latin words ending in "-et." When the symbol was carried into English, it was converted into the more familiar "z."
Examples of videlicet in a Sentence
the meaning of the Constitution is determined by one—and only one—body, videlicet, the U.S. Supreme Court
