Vicarious vs Indirect - What's the difference?
vicarious | indirect |
Experienced or gained by the loss or to the consequence of another, such as through watching or reading.
Done on behalf of others
Not direct; roundabout; deceiving; setting a trap; confusing.
* '>citation
As adjectives the difference between vicarious and indirect
is that vicarious is experienced or gained by the loss or to the consequence of another, such as through watching or reading while indirect is not direct; roundabout; deceiving; setting a trap; confusing.vicarious
English
Adjective
(-)- People experience vicarious pleasures through watching television.
- The concept of vicarious atonement, that one person can atone for the sins of another, is found in many religions.
Quotations
{{timeline, 1800s=1886, 1900s=1900 1920}} * 1886 — ch 10 *: The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were, as I have said, undignified; I would scarce use a harder term. But in the hands of Edward Hyde, they soon began to turn toward the monstrous. When I would come back from these excursions, I was often plunged into a kind of wonder at my vicarious depravity. * 1900 — ch 26 *: As time went on, the cruel custom was so far mitigated that a ram was accepted as a vicarious sacrifice in room of the royal victim. * 1920 — ch III *: In these, however, he had not much time to indulge, for a footman, still decked in the trappings of vicarious grief, opened the door with the most startling promptitude, and he was ushered upstairs into a small but richly furnished room.Derived terms
* vicarious atonement * vicarious learning * vicarious liability * vicarious reinforcementindirect
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- Indirect' messages permit communicative contacts when,
without them, the alternatives would be total inhibition, si-
lence, and solitude on the one hand, or, on the other, com-
municative behavior that is direct, offensive, and hence
forbidden. This is a painful choice. In actual practice, neither
alternative is likely to result in the gratification of personal or
sexual needs. In this dilemma, ' indirect communications pro-
vide a useful compromise. As an early move in the dating
game, the young man might invite the young woman to dinner
or to the movies. These communications are polyvalent: both
the invitation and the response to it have several "levels" of
meaning. One is the level of the overt message—that is,
whether they will have dinner together, go to a movie, and so
forth. Another, more covert, level pertains to the question of
sexual activity: acceptance of the dinner invitation implies
that sexual overtures might perhaps follow. Conversely, rejec-
tion of the invitation means not only refusal of companionship
for dinner but also of the possibility of further sexual explora-
tion. There may be still other levels of meaning. For example,
acceptance of the dinner invitation may be interpreted as a
sign of personal or sexual worth and hence grounds for
increased self-esteem, whereas its rejection may mean the
opposite and generate feelings of worthlessness.
