Uttering

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of forming sounds to communicate ideas or feelings occurs through verbal expression and conveys language's auditory elements
2. The process of producing vocal sounds to express thoughts or emotions
3. Articulating words or sounds audible to others as a form of communication

Etymology: The verb "utter" is built on an old English word meaning "outer." Its earliest ancestor, Old English "ūtera," was the comparative of "ūt," "out," so it literally meant "more out." That gave the adjective "utter," meaning complete or total, as in "utter darkness," which is a sense that moved inward from the outside edge. Dutch and German speakers had their own verb built from the same "out" root, meaning to make something known or to announce it, and English borrowed that sense. The verb in English arrived in the Middle English period with a wide range of meanings: to put goods up for sale, to make something known, or to put thoughts into words. The commercial sense is the oldest in the verb's history, so to "utter" a thing once meant to bring it out into the market. Over time the sense narrowed to speaking itself.

Synonyms: speaking, saying, voicing