vocabularium

Forms

vocābulārium n (genitive vocābulāriī or vocābulārī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vocābulum (“word, name”) + -ārium (“place for”).^[1][2] Etymonline traces vocābulum to vocō (“to call, name”), which is related to vōx (“voice”) and comes from Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- (“to speak”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DMLBS records the noun in 1508, in an inventory of Canterbury College, Oxford, of a list of words.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Wiktionary labels it Late Latin.^[1] Thomas More uses it of the words a text uses, asking whether the same word is read in the vocabularium of the old sacrifice and of the new.^[4] The DMLBS files it under the adjective vocabularius, which as a masculine noun also meant a compiler of a word list or the list itself.^[4]

It passed into several languages, as Catalan vocabulari, and was calqued in Dutch woordenboek.^[1] English took it over in the 1530s as vocabulary, “a list of words with brief definitions”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1508 – An inventory of Canterbury College, Oxford, lists a vocabularium.^[4]
• 1530s – English vocabulary is borrowed from it.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A vocabulary, word list, dictionary.^[1][5][4]

Related words

• English vocabulary

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson