Call

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /kɔːl/

Definitions

1. To reach out to someone by phone or another means of communication ; To invite or demand the presence of an individual or a thing ; To vocalize a message in hopes of gaining attention or receiving a reply
2. To establish contact with someone using a telephone or other device ; to formally ask for someone to come to a place ; to produce a sound with the voice intended to attract attention
3. To use a communication method to reach a person ; to request someone's appearance or participation ; to make a vocal sound that serves as a signal or message

Etymology: The verb "call" arrived in English from Old Norse as well as Old English, which is why its Scandinavian relatives look so familiar. Old English had "ċeallian," meaning "to call, shout," and Old Norse had "kalla," meaning "to call, shout, name." Both come from a Proto-Germanic verb, ""kalzōną," and the two forms merged into the Middle English "callen" that became modern "call." The same root gave Swedish "kalla," Danish "kalde," and German "kallen," though in German the verb now mostly survives in dialects and older senses such as chatting. The root goes back further still to Proto-Indo-European ""gel(H)-," meaning "to vocalize, call, shout," which also produced the Russian "golos" ("voice") and the Lithuanian "galsas" ("echo"). Welsh "galw" ("to call, demand") belongs to the same family, showing how far this sound-cluster of calling and voicing spread across European languages. Scots kept an older form in "caw" and "ca," both meaning "to call, cry, or shout." The meaning of "call" has widened from simply raising one's voice to summoning, naming, and, in the telephone age, making contact over a line.

Synonyms: ring, phone, contact, summon, notify

Antonyms: ignore, overlook, dismiss, neglect, shun