vocación

Forms

vocación f (plural vocaciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vocātiō (“a calling, summons; invitation”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun was formed from vocō (“to call”), itself a derivative of vōx (“voice”), the source of voz.^[5][6][7] In classical Latin it meant an invitation or a summons to court; in the Latin of the Church it came to mean the divine calling, and Medieval Latin also used it for a religious state of life and for the dedication of a church.^[7][8][9] The Spanish word appears in the Cid and in Berceo, both times with a religious sense.^[3]

The same Latin word is Portuguese vocação, Catalan vocació, French vocation and Italian vocazione.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy), in a passage about the church of Santa María: Vocación es que fizo el Cid Campeador “it is a dedication the Cid Campeador made”.^[14][3] The sense is the dedication of a church or altar to a saint, as in Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo (c. 1236), which calls Saint Sebastian del logar vocación “the patron of the place”.^[14][15]

Semantic evolution

This sense, now usually advocación, was common in the Middle Ages: Alfonso X's Estoria de España speaks of the churches of the holy martyrs cuyas eran las uocaciones, and in 1554 a chapel in Santo Domingo is one cuya vocación es Nuestra Señora de los Remedios.^[16][17] Autoridades still recorded it, quoting Cervantes, and the DLE keeps it as a second sense.^[18][2]

The main sense became God's call to a state of life, above all to the religious life.^[2][16] Autoridades added, as a word of familiar style, the career one chooses, whether arms, letters or a trade, and the phrase haber errado la vocación for one who does well what belongs to another occupation.^[18] The Academy's 1884 edition labelled the sense “inclination to any state, profession or career” as colloquial and the sense “convocation, summons” as old; the DLE has dropped the first label.^[19][20][2] Moliner singles out artistic and religious vocations.^[21]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid, of the dedication of a church.^[14][3][4]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos.^[14]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses uocaciones of churches dedicated to martyrs.^[16]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses Latin vocatio as a calling.^[6]
• 1554 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, of a chapel's dedication.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the career sense and the phrase haber errado la vocación.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and labels the career sense colloquial.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. The inspiration by which God calls someone to a state of life, especially to the religious life: Entró en el convento porque sentía vocación.^[2][21]
2. The dedication of a church or chapel to a saint; advocación.^[2]
3. A vocation or calling: an inner inclination to a state of life, a profession or a career: Desde niña sintió vocación por la enseñanza.^[2][21][1]
4. (obsolete) A convocation (convocación), summons.^[2][21]

Word family

• vocacional

Related words

• vocal
• vocativo
• voz
• advocación
• convocar
• Latin vocātiō

Usage notes

Errar la vocación is said of someone who works at something they have no gift for, or who shows a gift for something else.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. vocación
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 845
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. voz
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. vocación
6. ^ 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. vocación
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. vocātiō
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. vocatio
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3528
11. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. vocació
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vocation
13. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 730
14. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. vocación
15. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. vocación
16. ^ a b c 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. vocación
17. ^ a b 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. vocación
18. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, s.v. vocación
19. ^ 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
20. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. vocación
21. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vocación