vowel (n.)

c. 1300, from Old French voieul (Modern French voyelle), from Latin vocalis, in littera vocalis, literally "vocal letter," from vox (genitive vocis) "voice," from PIE root *wekw- "to speak." Vowel shift in reference to the pronunciation change between Middle and Modern English is attested from 1909. The English record-holder for most consecutive vowels in a word is queueing.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to vowel

intervocalic (adj.)

"between vowels," 1881, from inter- "between" + Latin vocalis "a vowel" (see vowel) + -ic.

*wekw-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to speak."

It forms all or part of: advocate; avocation; calliope; convocation; epic; equivocal; equivocation; evoke; invoke; provoke; revoke; univocal; vocabulary; vocal; vocation; vocative; vociferate; vociferous; voice; vouch; vox; vowel.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit vakti "speaks, says," vacas- "word;" Avestan vac- "speak, say;" Greek eipon (aorist) "spoke, said," epos "word;" Latin vocare "to call," vox "voice, sound, utterance, language, word;" Old Prussian wackis "cry;" German er-wähnen "to mention."

Trends of vowel

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

More to Explore

consonant

early 14c., "alphabetic element other than a vowel," from Latin consonantem (nominative consonans) "sounding together, agreeing," as a noun, "a consonant" (consonantem littera), present participle of consonare "to sound together, sound aloud," from assimilated form of com "with,

breakfast

For vowel shift, see below. An Old English word for it was undernmete (see undern), also morgenmete "morning meal."...The long/short vowel contrast in break/breakfast represents a common pattern where words from Old English have a long vowel...in their modern form but a short vowel as the first element of a compound: Christ/Christmas, holy/holiday, moon/Monday,...

elision

writing," 1580s, from Latin elisionem (nominative elisio) "a striking out, a pressing out," in grammar, "the suppression of a vowel...Properly, in prosody, "the vanishing or metrical ignoring of a vowel at the end of a word before a vowel (or an h) at the...

Mexico

Because of the difference in vowel length, it cannot be derived from ME-TL 'maguey.'...The sequence XIH also differs in vowel length from XIC-TLI 'navel,' which has been proposed as a component element....

sloe

The vowel has been influenced by that in the old plural form, which according to OED persisted into the 17c....Scottish slae preserves the older vowel. Sloe-eyed is attested from 1804; sloe gin is recorded by 1878....

Jehovah

1530, Tyndale's transliteration of Hebrew Tetragrammaton YHWH using vowel points of Adhonai "my lord" (see Yahweh)....The vowel substitution was originally made by the Masoretes as a direction to substitute Adhonai for "the ineffable name....

The Greeks also lacked the sound, so when they adopted the Phoenician letters they arbitrarily changed O's value to a vowel... The "connective" -o- is the usual connecting vowel in compounds taken or formed from Greek, where it often is the...vowel in the stem....to those derived from Latin (Latin compounds of which would have been formed with the L. connecting or reduced thematic vowel...

diphthong

"a union of two vowels pronounced in one syllable," late 15c., diptonge, from Late Latin diphthongus, from Greek diphthongos "having two sounds," from di- "double" (from PIE root *dwo- "two") + phthongos "sound, voice," which is related to phthengesthai "to utter a sound, sound,

sound

"noise, what is heard, sensation produced through the ear," late 13c., soun, from Old French son "sound, musical note, voice," from Latin sonus "sound, a noise," from PIE *swon-o-, from root *swen- "to sound." The unetymological -d was established c. 1350-1550 (see D). Sound-boar

letter

c. 1200, "graphic symbol, alphabetic sign, written character conveying information about sound in speech," from Old French letre "character, letter; missive, note," in plural, "literature, writing, learning" (10c., Modern French lettre), from Latin littera (also litera) "letter o

Share vowel

‘cite’

Page URL:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/vowel

HTML Link:

<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/vowel">Etymology of vowel by etymonline</a>

APA style:

Harper, D. (n.d.). Etymology of vowel. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved $(datetime), from https://www.etymonline.com/word/vowel

Chicago style:

Harper Douglas, “Etymology of vowel,” Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed $(datetime), https://www.etymonline.com/word/vowel.

MLA style:

Harper, Douglas. “Etymology of vowel.” Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/vowel. Accessed $(datetimeMla).

IEEE style:

D. Harper. “Etymology of vowel.” Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/vowel (accessed $(datetime)).

updated on June 11, 2020

Remove ads >

Trending words

1. indigenous
2. like
3. genius
4. gauze
5. queen
6. facet
7. tithe
8. tsar
9. disciple
10. virtue

Dictionary entries near vowel

votive

vouch

voucher

vouchsafe

vow

vowel

vox

vox populi

voyage

voyager

voyeur