vocative

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vocatif,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French vocatif^[2][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin vocātīvus,^[6][4][7][8] short for vocātīvus cāsus (“the case of calling”).^[6][9][4] The Latin adjective is formed from vocātus, the past participle of vocō (“to call”), with -īvus,^[6][7][3] and the verb is related to vōx (“voice”), from Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- (“to speak”).^[4] The French word is recorded as a noun from the second half of the 13th century and as an adjective from the middle of the 15th.^[6] The Latin term translates the Greek grammatical term for this case, Ancient Greek πτῶσις (ptôsis, “case, inflection”) qualified by κλητικός (klētikós, “related to calling”), from κλητός (klētós, “called”).^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The vocative case, as a noun: about 1400, in a Middle English treatise on syntax that lists the cases.^[6][2][4] The adjective follows about 1414, in the phrase for the case itself.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The Latin term had already been used in an English setting by Ælfric, whose Old English grammar glosses it with clypiendlic and gecigendlic.^[6] In the first Middle English examples the adjective could also describe verbs of naming and calling (verbes vocatives).^[2][6] From about 1450 it could mean more generally "of addressing or invoking someone",^[6] and a rare figurative use for calling or inviting is recorded before 1500, in the Gesta Romanorum.^[6] Barnhart dated the adjective to about 1432 and the noun to before 1522,^[7] dates the revised OED has moved back.^[6] Johnson (1755) entered only the noun, "the grammatical case used in calling or speaking to".^[10] From 1747, in Richardson's Clarissa, the noun was sometimes extended to any utterance aimed at someone, such as an appeal or an insult.^[6] The term also applies to a word or phrase of address whose relation is not marked by an inflection.^[3] The spellings focatiue and focative were used to represent a Welsh accent.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – noun, the vocative case.^[6][2][4]
• c. 1414 – adjective, of the case; also of a verb of addressing or naming.^[6][2] Barnhart dates the adjective to about 1432.^[7]
• c. 1450 – adjective, of addressing, summoning or invoking.^[6]
• before 1500 – figurative use, of calling or inviting (rare, now obsolete).^[6]
• 1747 – noun, an utterance addressed to someone; an appeal or an insult (rare).^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (grammar) Of or being the case that marks the person or thing addressed, in languages with inflection.^[3][9][6]
2. (grammar) Of a word or phrase, marking the one addressed even without an inflectional ending.^[3]
3. Of or relating to calling, addressing or invoking.^[9][6]

Noun

1. (grammar) The vocative case of a language.^[3][9][6]
2. (grammar) A word or form in that case, or used as a term of address: In “Waiter, the bill, please”, the first word is a vocative.^[3][9][6]
3. (rare) An utterance addressed to someone; an invocation, appeal or insult.^[6]

Word family

• vocatively

Related words

• vocal
• vocation
• voice

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 g 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. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.