Vicarious means felt through somebody else's experience rather than your own. Vicarious pleasure, live vicariously, vicarious thrill.
Living vicariously through your children is the standard use and the standard warning. In law, vicarious liability makes an employer answerable for what an employee does at work, and vicar is the same word.
1adjectivevicariousFelt through somebody else's experience rather than your own.
“Reading travel blogs gives me a vicarious pleasure, since I can't afford to go anywhere.”
vicarious is a quality.
Latin vicarius means substituted or acting for another; vicar is a doublet.
From vicārius + -ous. a doublet of vicar.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA