Etymologically
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voice

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /vɔɪs/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vois, borrowed from Anglo-Norman voiz and Old French vois, voiz “voice, speech; word, rumour”,[2][3][4] from Latin vōx (“voice, sound, utterance; word”), accusative vōcem,[2][3][5] related to vocāre (“to call”),[2][3][6] from Proto-Indo-European *wekw- (“to speak”).[2][5] Merriam-Webster compares Greek ἔπος (épos, “word, speech”) and Sanskrit vāk “voice”.[6][7] The verb is from the noun.[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The sound made by the human mouth: the late 13th century,[2] probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder and Arthour and Merlin.[3][8]

Semantic evolution

A particular tone or quality of voice is from about 1300, and an individual's voice by the early 14th century.[2] In Middle English it was also used of a ghost, God, a centaur or a frog, and by the early 14th century of things such as the wind or the thunder, and of abstractions such as the law or truth.[2] In grammar, the form of a verb showing the relation of subject to action is from the late 14th century.[2] “Expressed will or choice, a vote” is from the 14th century,[9] and the expression of feeling from the late 14th century.[2] A singer's ability is a voice from about 1600.[2][9] The verb meant “to be commonly said” from the mid-15th century,[2] 1453 in the OED,[8] “to express, give utterance to” from about 1600,[2] and “to pronounce with vibration of the vocal cords” from 1867.[2]

Timeline

  • late 13th century – the sound of the voice.[2]
  • c. 1300 – a tone or quality of voice.[2]
  • late 14th century – grammatical voice; expression of feeling.[2]
  • 1453 – verb, to be commonly said.[8]
  • c. 1600 – a singer's voice; verb, to express.[2]
  • 1867 – to pronounce with the vocal cords.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The sound produced by the vocal cords and mouth, especially in speaking or singing.
  2. The ability to speak or sing, or a particular quality of it.
  3. The expression of an opinion, or the right to express one; a say.
  4. A person or group that expresses an opinion: the voice of the people.
  5. (grammar) The form of a verb that shows whether the subject acts or is acted on, as in the active and passive voice.
  6. (music) A part for a singer or instrument in a composition.

Verb

  1. To express in words; to utter.
  2. (phonetics) To pronounce with vibration of the vocal cords.

Word family

  • voicer
  • outvoice
  • revoice
  • unvoice
  • voiceful
  • devoice
  • undervoice
  • voice-activated
  • vocable
  • vocabulary
  • vocal
  • vocalize
  • vocation
  • vociferous
  • vowel
  • advocate
  • invoke
  • provoke
  • epic

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press