Vis"count` (?), n. [OE. vicounte, OF. visconte, vescunte, F. vicomte, LL. vicecomes; L. vice (see Vice, a.) + comes a companion, LL., a count. See Count.]
1. O. Eng.Law
An officer who formerly supplied the place of the count, or earl; the sheriff of the county.
2.
A nobleman of the fourth rank, next in order below an earl and next above a baron; also, his degree or title of nobility. See Peer, n., 3.
[Eng.]
Chaucer.
© Webster 1913.