evoke

Etymology

It is borrowed from French évoquer, or directly borrowed from Latin ēvocō (“to call out, rouse, summon”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from ē- (“out”), a form of ex-, and vocō (“to call”).^[6][2][7] The Shorter Oxford takes it from Latin, perhaps after the French verb,^[8] and Barnhart allows that it may instead be a back-formation from evocation, which is older in English.^[3] The verb for to call is related to vōx (“voice”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- (“to speak”).^[2][6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To call forth, especially to summon up spirits by magic: first recorded in Cockeram's English Dictionarie (1623–26).^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the verb was often used with more or less of the sense of calling up spirits.^[2] From 1749 it was used figuratively with an allusion to magic.^[5] From 1752 it also meant transferring a legal case from a lower to a higher court, a sense now historical.^[5][8] The main modern sense, to call up a feeling or a memory, is recorded from 1856, in Emerson.^[5][2][8] Merriam-Webster also records the verb for citing something approvingly, much like invoke.^[4]

Timeline

• 1623 – to call forth, especially to summon spirits by magic.^[5][3]
• 1749 – figuratively, with an allusion to magic.^[5]
• 1752 – to remove a case to a higher court.^[5][8]
• 1856 – to call up a feeling, a faculty or a memory.^[5][2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring a memory, feeling or image to mind: The smell of pine evoked her childhood summers.^[10][4][5]
2. To call forth or elicit a response: The proposal evoked loud protests.^[10][8]
3. To summon a spirit or other supernatural being; to conjure up.^[10][4][5]
4. To cite with approval or for support; to invoke.^[4]
5. (historical) To remove a legal case to a higher court.^[5][8]

Word family

• evocable
• evoker
• unevocable
• evocation

Related words

• convoke
• invoke
• provoke
• revoke
• evocative
• vocation
• voice

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins