Etymologically
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vocabularium

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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]

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