convoke

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French convoquer,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a learned borrowing, recorded in French from the 14th century,^[3][4][5] from Latin convocō (“to call together”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from com- (“together”) and vocō (“to call”),^[2][3][4][5] a verb derived from vōx (“voice”),^[5][3] from Proto-Indo-European *wekw- (“to speak”).^[5][6] The Oxford Dictionary of English, the Shorter Oxford and Collins take it directly from Latin,^[7][8][9] and Dictionary.com marks the French step as optional.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To call together, to summon to assemble: 1598, in J. Florio's Italian–English dictionary A Worlde of Wordes.^[4][3][2]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed close to the Latin, and the verb is mostly used of a body that meets by formal summons, such as a parliament or council.^[2] The noun convocation, an assembly, was in English two centuries earlier, from before 1387 in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon;^[3] Weekley dates its church sense to the reign of Edward I and its university sense to the 15th century.^[11] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as to call together or summon to an assembly, and quoted Locke.^[12]

Timeline

• before 1387 – the noun convocation, an assembly.^[3]
• 1598 – to call together, to summon to assemble.^[4][3][2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To call a meeting or assembly together; to summon the members of a parliament, council or other official body: The bishop convoked a synod of his clergy.^[2][9][4]

Word family

• convoker
• convocation

Related words

• evoke
• invoke
• provoke
• revoke
• voice
• vocation

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.