Collective bargaining

La vigenza del contratto is the time during which an agreement is alive, and the noun rests on a verb that English never took. Italian still has vigēre, the Latin verb for being strong and thriving, in the small defective verb vigere, which turns up only in the third person: il contratto vige fino a dicembre, le norme vigenti, la legge non vige più. Out of the same root come in vigore, il vigore, vigente and la vigenza itself. English borrowed the noun and left the verb behind: « vigour », « vigorous » and « invigorate » are the same Latin vigor, but they are said of bodies and of prose, never of a wage agreement. For that English reaches for another picture and says a contract is « in force ». The two images do not carry the same idea. « In force » makes a rule something imposed and held in place; in vigore makes it something that is still thriving under its own power and will one day wither on its own — which is exactly what a bargaining round is about, because the day la vigenza runs out is the day everything starts again.