vocablo

Forms

vocablo m (plural vocablos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vocābulum (“name, word”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] Corominas notes that Latin charters of 1081 already used the ablative of the noun for “by the name of”.^[4] The noun is formed from Latin vocō (“to call”) + -bulum, and the verb belongs to the family of vōx (“voice”), the source of Spanish voz.^[1][5][3]

The Latin word was also borrowed as Portuguese vocábulo, Catalan vocable, French vocable and Italian vocabolo.^[6][7][8][9] Nascentes holds that the Portuguese word was remade on the Latin from an older half-popular Old Galician-Portuguese vocabro.^[10] Covarrubias (1611) explained the word as meaning any word, so called because none can be pronounced without a vowel, an explanation of his time.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Alfonso X's Libro de las cruces (1259), in the plural uocables: the chapter explains the çinquo uocables “five terms” the astrologers used.^[12] The CDH's first hit, the Castigos of 1293, speaks of la propiedat del uocablo “the proper sense of the word”.^[13] Corominas dates the word 1427 in the Breve diccionario and cites Alfonso de Palencia (1490) and Nebrija in the larger dictionary.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In medieval texts vocablo was used above all for a name: the Crónica de 1344 says corronpiose el vocablo “the name was corrupted” of a place, and Juan Fernández de Heredia uses it of place names in his translations.^[13] Nebrija rendered it with Latin vocabulum and dictio.^[14] Autoridades (1739) defined it as a meaningful sound, a word.^[15] The Academy recorded the phrase jugar del vocablo “to play on words” in 1817, and in 1884 explained it as using a word in a double sense or playing on words that differ in a letter or two.^[16][17] Today it is a somewhat formal synonym of palabra, for the spoken unit and for its written form.^[2][18]

Timeline

• 1081 – Latin charters use uocabulo for “by the name of”.^[4]
• 1259 – the plural uocables in the Libro de las cruces.^[12]
• 1293 – the Castigos use uocablo for “word”.^[13]
• 1427 – first date in Corominas's Breve diccionario.^[3][9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives uocabulum and dictio.^[14]
• 1546 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[19]
• 1817 – the Academy records jugar del vocablo.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A word, as a unit of language: Ese vocablo viene del árabe.^[2][1][18]
2. The written form of a word.^[2][18]

Word family

• vocabulario

Related words

• voz
• vocal
• palabra
• Latin vocābulum

Usage notes

Jugar del vocablo means to make a pun, to play on words.^[2][17] In the Quijote Sancho deforms the word into voquibles (Otro reprochador de voquibles tenemos).^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. vocablo
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. voz
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 845
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3528
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. vocable
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vocable
9. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 847
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vocábulo
11. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1394
12. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. vocablo
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. vocablo
14. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. vocablo
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 512
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 898
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1096
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vocablo
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. vocablo
20. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. s.v. vocablo