Vernaculus

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a specific region
2. Describing a local language or form of speech that is native to a particular area or community
3. Pertaining to the vernacular, especially in contrast to a formal or literary language used in a broader context

Etymology: "Vernaculus" is the Latin adjective from which English "vernacular" descends, and it began as a word for home-grown things rather than for speech. The Latin "verna" meant a slave born in the master's household, and "vernaculus" was the adjective for what belonged to that domestic, native world. A "vernacula" was a native-born household servant, and the adjective came to describe anything homegrown or indigenous, as opposed to imported or foreign. Over time the sense shifted from native to people and things of one's own place toward the speech of that place. Medieval Latin writers used the word for the everyday tongues of ordinary people, set against the formal Latin of learning and church, and "vernacular" entered English in this sense. Something that was once a joke about where a person was born became the standard term for the language people actually speak at home.

Synonyms: vernacular, native, indigenous, local

Antonyms: foreign, alien, non-native