Vocacioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person's occupation or profession, especially one regarded as a calling or vocation from God
2. A profession or career to which someone feels specially called, or a religious calling to serve
3. An occupation or line of work felt to be one's particular mission or purpose in life

Etymology: "Vocacioun" is a Middle English spelling of "vocation," and it reached English through Old French "vocacion" from Latin "vocatio," a noun from "vocare," "to call." So the word's oldest sense is literal: a summons or calling, something one is called to do. That sense of divine summons shaped its meaning for centuries. In medieval usage, a "vocacioun" was often a religious calling, the sense that God had summoned someone to the priesthood or to a monastic life. The idea that a person could be called to a particular occupation gradually broadened it into the general sense of a trade or line of work, which is the meaning that "vocation" carries today.