vocábulo

Forms

vocábulo m (plural vocábulos)^[1] Old forms are bocavollo (14th century) and vocabulos, uocabullos and vocabolo (15th century).^[2][3] Nascentes names an old form vocabro.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vocābulum (“name, term, word”), recorded from the 14th century as Old Galician-Portuguese bocavollo.^[2][3][1] Nascentes takes the learned form as a remaking of an older Old Galician-Portuguese vocabro.^[4]

The same Latin noun gave Spanish vocablo, Galician vocábulo, Catalan vocable, French vocable and Italian vocabolo.^[5][1] French has it from the 13th century as a semi-learned word.^[6]

The Latin noun is formed from vocō (“to call”) with the suffix -bulum.^[7][1] De Vaan lists the verb among the derivatives of vōx (“voice”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wṓkʷs (“voice, speech”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the first record to the 14th century, spelt bocavollo, with the sense “word, term”.^[2][3] Bluteau defined it as the name of anything, a word, and quoted the Ortografia of Duarte Nunes on Portuguese vocabulos.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed “word”.^[2][3] Vieira recorded os vocábulos da honra for titles such as excelência and senhoria.^[10] Modern grammar uses it for the word as a unit of sound and spelling, and for the unstressed words that lean on another to form a vocábulo fonético.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, spelt bocavollo.^[2][3]
• 15th century – the spellings vocabulos, uocabullos and vocabolo.^[2]
• 1614 – first record of vocabulário.^[12]
• 1657 – first record of vocabulista.^[3]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses vocabulo with the Latin dictio and vocabulum.^[13]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as the name of anything.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (grammar, linguistics) A word, a term of a language; palavra.^[2][14][1]
2. (grammar) An unstressed word such as a preposition, conjunction, article or clitic pronoun, which joins another word to form a phonetic word.^[2]

Word family

• vocabular

Related words

• vocabulário
• voz
• vocal
• Latin vocābulum
• Spanish vocablo

Usage notes

Jogo de vocábulos means a play on words, a trocadilho.^[15][16]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vocábulo
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. vocábulo
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vocábulo
5. ^ 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. vocablo
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vocable
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. vocabulum
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. vox
9. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vocâbulo
10. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 986
11. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. vocábulo
12. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vocabulário
13. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vocabulo
14. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vocábulo
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. vocábulo
16. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. vocábulo