entry
vowel
/ˈvaʊəl/Speech sound produced with little or no obstruction
From Latin vocalis (vocal).
from Latin vocalis, in littera vocalis "vocal letter." This is
from Old French vouel, a variant of voyeul (whence French voyelle)
from Middle English vowel
Word Ancestry
from Latin vocalis, in littera vocalis "vocal letter." This is
from Old French vouel, a variant of voyeul (whence French voyelle)
from Middle English vowel
Latin grammarians called a vowel a littera vocalis—a “speaking” or “voiced letter”—from vocalis, built on vox, “voice.” The term traveled through Old French vouel before arriving in English around 1300, when manuscripts still treated letters as rather more mysterious objects than today’s tidy alphabet charts. Wiktionary also notes that Latin vocalis was a semantic loan of Koine Greek φωνῆεν (phōnêen), literally something “sounding” or “voiced,” so two ancient traditions were pointing at the same open-throated phenomenon. A vowel is what lets a syllable breathe: remove the central open sound from a word and its consonants are left crowding together like furniture in a locked room. The word’s family still speaks plainly—your vocal cords, your voice, and a vocal argument all preserve the old idea of sounding aloud.
The Story
Latin grammarians called a vowel a littera vocalis—a “speaking” or “voiced letter”—from vocalis, built on vox, “voice.” The term traveled through Old French vouel before arriving in English around 1300, when manuscripts still treated letters as rather more mysterious objects than today’s tidy alphabet charts. Wiktionary also notes that Latin vocalis was a semantic loan of Koine Greek φωνῆεν (phōnêen), literally something “sounding” or “voiced,” so two ancient traditions were pointing at the same open-throated phenomenon. A vowel is what lets a syllable breathe: remove the central open sound from a word and its consonants are left crowding together like furniture in a locked room. The word’s family still speaks plainly—your vocal cords, your voice, and a vocal argument all preserve the old idea of sounding aloud.
Modern Usage
A pejorative term for an Italian-American, especially a Sicilian in New York City or northern New Jersey.
Notable References
- Urban Dictionary entry 1
Kin & Kindred
From 'vocalis'·vocal, voiced, relating to speech
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia
Wiktionary