Vicinity means the area near or around a particular place. If something is in the vicinity, it is close by but not necessarily right next to it.
From Latin 'vicinitas', meaning 'nearness or neighborhood', from 'vicinus' meaning 'neighboring'. English kept the sense of nearby area rather than exact location.
When people say ‘in the vicinity’, they’re purposely being fuzzy about distance. It’s close enough to matter, but not pinned down to a point on a map. The word is like a soft-focus lens for location.
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