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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word voz

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1140 Cantar de mio Cid More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin vox via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *wṓkʷs
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin vōx
French voix
Italian voce
Spanish voz
From the same root
Latin vōcālis ← vōx
Latin vōciferor ← vōx

Pronunciation

  • /ˈboθ/, [ˈboθ], /ˈbos/[1]

Forms

voz f (plural voces)[1] From the Cid to Nebrija the usual spelling was boz, although voz was also common in the Middle Ages.[2] Other medieval spellings include bos, vos, uoz and uoç.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish voz, inherited from Latin vox (“voice”).[2][5][6][1] Corominas notes that the word has been in popular use in every period.[2] Wiktionary suggests that the sense “word, term” is a semantic loan from Latin.[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese voz, Galician voz, Catalan veu, Occitan votz, French voix, Italian voce and Romanian boace.[7][8] The Catalan form was vou in the oldest texts.[9]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *wōkʷs, from Proto-Indo-European *wṓkʷs (“voice”).[10][1] Its cognates are Sanskrit वाच् (vā́c, “voice, speech”), Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps, “voice”) and the Tocharian word for “voice”.[10][1] Wiktionary describes it as an o-grade root noun of *wekʷ- (“to speak”), and the Latin verb vocō (“to call”) belongs to the same root.[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy): Los de mio Cid a altas vozes llaman “the Cid's men call out with loud voices”, at the gates of a town that will not open to them.[2][11] The Cortes of Benavente (1202) are the first text with the word in a contemporary copy; they speak of la voz del Rey, the king's right.[11] The DTME dates the word in Spanish from 1126, without naming the text.[12]

Semantic evolution

Besides the main sense, Old Spanish used the word for a shout (Berceo), for the right to act for someone (Berceo, charters of Córdoba and Seville of 1253) and for a vote (the Rimado de Palacio, Nebrija's voto en la eleción).[2] The sense “vote” went out of use when the learned voto took its place, while French voix kept it.[2] In the Cid boz also means a legal claim.[3]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1739) defined it as the sound formed in the throat, then the sound of inanimate things struck by the wind, a shout, and a word of a language.[13] The Academy's 1817 edition added the grammatical sense, voz activa and voz pasiva.[14] In 1884 the dictionary gave the etymology and a physiological definition, with the larynx and the vocal cords.[15] Moliner records the musical senses: each singer of an ensemble, and each melodic line of a polyphonic work (fuga a cuatro voces).[16] In Ecuador and Chile voz de tarro is a shrill, unpleasant voice.[17]

Timeline

  • c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has the first record.[2][5]
  • 1202 – the Cortes of Benavente speak of la voz del Rey.[11]
  • 1220–1250 – the sense “shout”, in Berceo.[5][2]
  • 1253 – the sense “representation” in charters of Córdoba and Seville.[2]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of a remedy that clears the voice.[18]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija records the sense “vote in an election”.[2]
  • 1527 – the first record from the Americas, in Santa Marta.[19]
  • 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the voice and the sense “word”.[13]
  • 1817 – the Academy's dictionary adds the grammatical sense.[14]
  • 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and a physiological definition.[15]

Meanings

Noun

  1. voice: the sound made when air from the lungs makes the vocal cords vibrate: Reconocí su voz por teléfono.[6][1]
  2. The quality, timbre or loudness of the voice.[6]
  3. The sound made by inanimate things struck by the wind or striking it.[6]
  4. (often plural) A shout, a raised voice, as in dar voces “to shout”.[6][3]
  5. A word or term: una voz de origen árabe.[6][1]
  6. A singer.[6]
  7. An opinion given in a meeting; a vote; the right to speak in an assembly without the right to vote.[6]
  8. A rumour or report, as in correr la voz “to spread the word”.[6][16]
  9. (grammar) The form of the verb that shows whether the subject acts or is acted on: voz activa, voz pasiva.[6][14]
  10. (Ecuador, Chile) voz de tarro: a shrill, unpleasant voice.[17]

Word family

  • vozarrón
  • vocear
  • vocero
  • vocerío
  • vocinglero
  • portavoz
  • abogar
  • advocar
  • convocar
  • evocar
  • invocar
  • provocar
  • revocar
  • unívoco
  • vocablo
  • vocación
  • vocal
  • vocativo
  • vociferar
  • voto
  • Latin vox
  • Portuguese voz

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include a voz en grito “at the top of one's voice”, en voz alta “aloud”, secreto a voces “open secret” and pública voz y fama, said of what nearly everyone holds to be true.[1][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 845
  3. ^ a b c Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 81
  4. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. voz
  5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. voz
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. voz
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9459
  8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7282
  9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 9, 223
  10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ 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. voz
  12. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. voz
  13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 524
  14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 901
  15. ^ 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. 1099
  16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. voz
  17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. voz
  18. ^ 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. voz
  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. voz

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Voz.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/voz. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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