Vocables

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of sounds or utterances that form recognizable speech
2. expressing thoughts or ideas through spoken words or phrases
3. any set of vocal expressions that may or may not convey specific meanings

Etymology: The word "vocable" entered English in the Middle Ages, borrowed through Middle French from Latin "vocābulum," a noun built on "vocō," meaning "to call." A "vocābulum" was, in its original sense, a name: the thing by which something is called. Over time the word narrowed in Latin and then in English toward the sheer sounds of speech, so a vocable came to mean a unit of utterance rather than the meaning it carries. That shift is the surprising part. The original idea was not sound but naming, and the modern sense strips away meaning to leave only the audible form. Its near relative, "vocabulary," followed a similar path from the same Latin root, which is why the two words share so much spelling. "Vocables" is simply the plural of "vocable."

Synonyms: words, sounds, utterances, phrases, terms