vocation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vocacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman vocaciun and Middle French vocacion, also vocation,^[5][3][4] and directly borrowed from Latin vocātiō (“a calling, summons, invitation”),^{[5][3][4][6][7]} from vocātus (“called”), the past participle of vocō (“to call”),^[3][2][4][8] which is related to vōx (“voice”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- (“to speak”).^[3][2][9] In French it is recorded from about 1200 for God's calling of a person to a particular, usually religious, way of life; from the early 15th century it also meant a station in life or an occupation.^[5] In classical Latin it meant an invitation or a summons to court, and in the Vetus Latina and the Vulgate God's call to faith or to a religious life;^[5] the OED notes that these Christian uses follow the New Testament use of Ancient Greek κλῆσις (klêsis, “a call, invitation, summons”).^[5] Compare Spanish vocación, Portuguese vocação and Italian vocazione.^[5] The word belongs with voice, vocal, vocative, invoke, provoke and vouch.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In a church's calling or appointing of a person to the ministry or to another office in the church: 1442, in the Registrum Thome Spofford; this use died out by 1860.^[5] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary give the first sense as a spiritual or divine call to a religious life, early in the 15th century,^[3][2] and Barnhart dates the spiritual sense probably before 1430.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word first described a call from God, or from the church, to a religious life or office,^[5][10][3] and Johnson (1755) still put "calling by the will of God" first.^[11] From God's call to a way of life it passed to the way of life itself (1487, in Caxton), to a person's station in life (before 1492), and to a profession that one feels destined to follow (1538).^[5] The sense of one's ordinary employment, mechanical or professional, is recorded from 1553,^[5][4][3] perhaps influenced by the same sense in Middle French.^[4] The extended sense of a strong conviction that one should follow a particular career is first found in Wycherley in 1672.^[5] In theology it has meant God's calling of people to salvation since 1502, as in the vocation of the Gentiles (1550, in Cranmer).^[5]

Timeline

• 1442 – a church's calling of a person to a ministry or office (obsolete by 1860).^[5]
• before 1475 – God's calling of a person to a particular, especially religious, way of life.^[5] Barnhart dates it probably before 1430.^[4]
• 1487 – a way of life to which God calls a person.^[5]
• before 1492 – a person's station in life.^[5]
• 1502 – God's calling of people to salvation.^[5]
• 1538 – a profession or course one feels destined to follow.^[5]
• 1553 – one's ordinary occupation or trade.^[5][4][3]
• 1672 – a strong conviction that one is meant to follow a particular career.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strong feeling of being suited or called to a particular career or way of life, especially a religious one: He had no vocation for the priesthood.^[12][5][8]
2. A divine summons to a religious life or to a particular task.^[8][5]
3. An occupation, especially one needing dedication; a profession or trade.^[12][5]
4. In theology, God's calling of people to salvation.^[5]

Word family

• vocational

Related words

• vocative
• avocation
• convoke
• evoke
• revoke
• vocabulary

Usage notes

Dictionary.com lists vocation among words easily confused with avocation and vacation.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House