vocabulary

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin vocābulārium (“a word list”) (also vocābulārius),^[2][3][4] perhaps influenced by Middle French vocabulaire,^[3][5][6] from Latin vocābulum (“word, name, noun”) and the suffix -ārius,^[2][7] from vocō (“to call, name”),^[3][4] which is related to vōx (“voice”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- (“to speak”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A list of words with brief explanations or translations: 1532, in Thomas More's Confutation of Tyndale's Answer.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

At first a vocabulary was a book or list of words, often those of one author or text rather than a whole dictionary, which is how Johnson (1755) defined it.^[4][8] The meaning "the body of words of a language" followed in 1701,^[2] and "the words a person or group knows or uses" in 1710,^[2] though Etymonline dates these to 1782 and 1753.^[4] In 1803 Sir Home Popham gave the name to a system of naval flag signals.^[2] The words taught in a language course were called vocabulary from 1850,^[2] and since 1860 the word has been used figuratively for the range of forms or techniques available to an artist.^[2] In negative phrases (from 1797), something that is "not in a person's vocabulary" is foreign to their nature.^[2]

Timeline

• 1532 – a list of words with explanations.^[2][3]
• 1701 – the words of a language.^[2]
• 1710 – the words used by a person or group.^[2]
• 1803 – a naval flag-signal code.^[2]
• 1850 – the words taught in a language course.^[2]
• 1860 – figurative: a set of artistic forms.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. All the words known or used by a particular person or group: her vocabulary grew quickly at school.
2. The body of words of a language, or those used in a particular field: legal vocabulary.
3. A list of words with their meanings or translations, especially in a language textbook; a glossary.
4. A range of forms or techniques of expression, as in art or music.

Word family

• vocabularied

Related words

• vocable
• vocal
• voice
• vocation

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ 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. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.