vocação

Forms

vocação f (plural vocações)^[1] The 13th-century form is vocaçon;^[2][3] vocação is recorded from 1600.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vocātiō (“a calling; invitation, summons”), a learned word first recorded in the 13th century as Old Galician-Portuguese vocaçon.^[2][3][1] Nascentes calls it semi-learned.^[4] The Latin noun is formed from vocō (“to call”) with the suffix -tiō.^[5] The verb is a denominative from the oblique stem of vōx (“voice”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wṓkʷs (“voice”);^[6][1] Sanskrit वाच् (vā́c, “speech, voice”) and Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps, “voice”) are cognates.^[6][1]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Spanish vocación, Catalan vocació, French vocation and Italian vocazione.^[1][7] French took it about 1190, first as a biblical term for God's call.^[8] The inherited Portuguese word from the Latin noun for “voice” is voz.^[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date vocaçon to the 13th century, Houaiss from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese;^[2][3] Cunha gives the original sense as “the act of calling”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Classical Latin used the noun for an invitation and for a summons to court; ecclesiastical Latin gave it the sense “calling” of the Vulgate, and Medieval Latin used it for divine vocation and for a way of life, especially the religious state.^[5][10][11] Portuguese started from the sense “calling”, and Cunha describes the sense “tendency, aptitude” as an extension.^[3]

Morais (1813) gives both the summoning of people to an action and God's calling, the inspiration to become a religious, with a quotation from Lucena.^[12] Vieira (1871–1874) lists the biblical uses, such as the vocation of Abraham and the calling of the Gentiles to the Gospel, and the inner call by which God draws a person to a state of life.^[13] From the religious call the word passed to any natural inclination towards a profession or activity, and then to talent in general.^[2][14] The law uses it for the calling of heirs to a succession (vocação hereditária).^[2][14] In Rio de Janeiro the 1975 Aurélio records the sense “the ground to which a tree is especially well suited”.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, as vocaçon.^[2][3]
• 1600 – first record of the spelling vocação.^[2]
• 1692 – vocação in a private letter.^[17]
• 1813 – Morais gives the senses “summoning” and “God's call to the religious life”.^[12]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira lists the biblical and theological uses.^[13]
• 1975 – Aurélio records the Rio de Janeiro sense “ground well suited to a tree”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of calling; a summons, a designation.^[2][14]
2. (religion) A calling to the priesthood or the religious life;^[2][16] (theology) God's choice of a person, predestinação.^[2][16]
3. A natural inclination towards an activity or profession; vocation, pendor: Desde criança mostrou vocação para a música.^[2][14][1]
4. (by extension) Any natural gift or taste; talent, aptidão.^[2][14]
5. (law) The calling of a person to an obligatory office or to a right;^[2][14] vocação hereditária, the calling of the legal heirs to an estate in the order set by civil law.^[2][14]
6. (Brazil, Rio de Janeiro) Ground to which a tree is especially well adapted.^[15][16]

Word family

• vocacional

Related words

• vocal
• vocativo
• voz
• invocação
• convocação
• Latin vocātiō
• Spanish vocación

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vocação
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. vocação
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vocação
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. vocātiō
6. ^ a b 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. vōx
7. ^ 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. vocación
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vocation
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9460
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. vocātiō
11. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. vocatio
12. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 862
13. ^ a b 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
14. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vocação
15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda (1975), Novo dicionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, p. 1493
16. ^ a b c d 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. vocação
17. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. vocação