votive

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vōtīvus (“offered or performed in fulfilment of a vow”),^[2][3][4][5] from vōtum (“a vow”) and the suffix -īvus,^[2][4][6] and so is related to vow and vote.^[7][3][8] Barnhart adds Middle French votif as a second source and Etymonline gives French votif as the only one,^[8][7] but the OED, which gives no such route, records that form once in 1374 and then only from 1636.^[2] The noun can be compared with Medieval Latin votivum (“votive offering”), recorded by 1600.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who has made a religious vow, as a noun: 1584, in B. Rich's Don Simonides.^[2] The adjective, of a person bound by a vow or devout, follows in 1593, in Nashe's Christs Teares ouer Ierusalem.^[2][8] Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s,^[7] and Merriam-Webster's first date is 1597.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word first described people who had taken a vow, a use now rare.^[2] From 1597, in Middleton, it could also mean expressing a wish or desire,^[2][8] and the Oxford Dictionary of English regards this as the original sense, kept in votive Mass.^[9] That Mass does not follow the order of the day but is said for a special intention chosen by the celebrant,^[5] which is why Collins glosses the Roman Catholic sense as optional rather than prescribed.^[10] The sense now usual, of something offered to a god or saint in fulfilment of a vow, is recorded from 1602, in Lodge's translation of Josephus, and in 1608 it spread to acts undertaken under a vow and to the noun for the offering itself.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave only "given by vow".^[11] The newest sense is a noun of 1958, first short for votive candle and later also the small glass holder for such a candle or a tealight.^[2]

Timeline

• 1584 – noun, a person who has made a religious vow.^[2]
• 1593 – adjective, of a person, bound by a vow; devout.^[2][8]
• 1597 – expressing a wish or desire.^[2][8]
• 1602 – offered to a god or saint in fulfilment of a vow.^[2]
• 1608 – noun, a votive offering; adjective, of an act undertaken in accordance with a vow.^[2]
• 1664 – wished for, as opposed to actual (rare and now obsolete).^[2]
• 1958 – noun, a votive candle.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Offered or set up in fulfilment of a vow, often in gratitude: A votive offering lay at the foot of the shrine.^[10][4][2]
2. Undertaken or performed in accordance with a vow.^[10][4][2]
3. Expressing a vow, wish or desire.^[4][5][2]
4. (Roman Catholic Church) Of a Mass, not following the order of the day but said for a special intention; optional.^[10][5]
5. (rare) Of a person, bound by a vow; devout.^[2][8]

Noun

1. An object placed in a sacred place as a votive offering.^[2][5]
2. A votive candle, or a small glass holder for a candle or tealight.^[2]
3. A person who has made a religious vow; also a devotee or ardent admirer.^[2]

Word family

• votively
• votiveness

Related words

• votive candle
• votive mass
• ex-voto
• vow
• vote
• votary

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 p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.