Etymologically
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vociferor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [woːˈkɪ.fɛ.rɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [voˈt͡ʃiː.fe.ror][1]

Forms

vōciferor (present infinitive vōciferārī, perfect active vōciferātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] Varro has the active vōciferant, and Livy the participle in an impersonal passive construction.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin vōx (“voice”) + ferō (“to carry”), a deponent verb.[2][3][1] De Vaan traces vōx to Proto-Italic *wōkʷs and Proto-Indo-European *wōkʷ-s (“voice”).[4] Cognate with Sanskrit वाक् (vā́k, “voice, speech”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is a line of the comic poet Atta, of someone shouting in the street.[2] De Vaan dates it from Varro.[4]

Semantic evolution

It means to utter a loud cry, shout or yell, and of animals to make a loud noise, as Varro's cocks that often crow and Columella's goose that cried out at the coming of the Gauls while the dogs were silent.[2][3] With an accusative it is to cry out words at the top of one's voice, as Cicero's “my day, voice and lungs would fail me if I tried to shout this now”, and with an accusative and infinitive or direct speech to cry out that.[2] Döderlein distinguishes it from clāmō: both are human cries, but clāmāre expresses will, vōciferārī passion, in anger, pain or drunkenness.[5]

Timeline

  • first quarter of the 1st century BC – Atta of shouting in the street.[2][6]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of crowing cocks.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of crying out words.[2][6]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of a goose crying out.[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To utter a loud cry, shout, yell, scream; of animals, to make a loud noise.[2][3][1]
  2. To cry out words, vociferate, exclaim; to cry out that.[2][3][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de