invocation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English invocacioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French invocacion (“appeal, invocation”),^[4][5][6] recorded in French from the 12th century,^[4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin invocātiō (“a calling upon”),^[2][7][8] which is also the source of the French noun.^[4][5][6] The Latin noun of action comes from invocō (“to call upon, appeal to”),^[4][5] formed from in- (“upon”) and vocō (“to call”),^[4][5] a verb related to vōx (“voice”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekw- (“to speak”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A calling upon a god for help, in prayer: Chaucer used it once, in the House of Fame, about 1384,^[5][9] and Etymonline gives the late 14th century.^[4] The Middle English Dictionary glosses it as a petition to God, a sacred name or a pagan deity for aid or comfort.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense came first, but the magical one followed within a few years: in 1390 Gower used the word for the conjuring of a devil or spirit by incantation,^[5][9] and the formula itself could be called an invocation.^[5][10] Johnson (1755) separated the act of calling upon someone in prayer from the form of words that calls for a being's help or presence, and his quotations include the poet's appeal to a deity.^[11] That appeal at the opening of a poem, to a Muse or a god, is a sense of its own in Collins.^[10] From the early 19th century the word also named a set part of public worship: the OED records it in 1827, of a prayer in a religious service,^[5] and Merriam-Webster describes a prayer asking for the divine presence at the start of a service or a meeting.^[3] Outside religion it passed into law, where from 1808 Admiralty prize procedure used it for calling in papers or evidence from another case,^[5] and into general use for citing something as authority or justification.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – a calling upon God or a deity in prayer.^[5][9]
• 1390 – the conjuring of a devil or spirit; an incantation.^[5][9]
• 1808 – in Admiralty prize procedure, the calling in of papers or evidence from another case.^[5]
• 1827 – a form of prayer in a public religious service.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of calling on a god or other power for help or support; supplication or appeal.^[3][10][5]
2. A prayer that asks for the divine presence or help, especially one opening a service or a meeting: The chaplain gave the invocation before the graduation.^[3][10]
3. An appeal to a Muse or deity for inspiration at the beginning of a poem.^[10][11]
4. The summoning of a spirit or demon by ritual or magic, or the incantation used to do it.^[10][5]
5. The calling upon of something as authority or justification: the invocation of an old statute.^[3]

Word family

• invocational
• invocatory

Related words

• evocation
• invoke
• vocation
• voice

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
10. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.