[go: up one dir, main page]
Advertisement

Origin and history of vernacular

vernacular(adj.)

c. 1600, "native to a country, indigenous," from Latin vernaculus "domestic, native, indigenous; pertaining to home-born slaves," from verna "slave born in his master's house," in transferred use, "a native," said to be a word of Etruscan origin.

In English it is restricted to the sense in Latin vernacula vocabula, in reference to the native language or ordinary idiom of a place. As a noun, "native speech or language of a place," from 1706. Compare vulgar. Fitzedward Hall (1873) uses home-English for vernacular English. Related: Vernacularism.

For human speech is after all a democratic product, the creation, not of scholars and grammarians, but of unschooled and unlettered people. Scholars and men of education may cultivate and enrich it, and make it flower into the beauty of a literary language; but its rarest blooms are grafted on a wild stock, and its roots are deep-buried in the common soil. [Logan Pearsall Smith, "Words and Idioms," 1925]

also from c. 1600

Entries linking to vernacular

vulgar(adj.)

late 14c., "common, usual, ordinary, in general use; what is commonly used or understood," often in reference to writing or language, from Latin vulgaris, volgaris "of or pertaining to the common people; low, mean," from vulgus, volgus "the common people, the multitude, crowd, throng," for which de Vaan offers no further etymology.

In English the meaning "coarse, low, ill-bred" is recorded by 1640s, probably from earlier sense (with reference to people) of "belonging to the ordinary class; of, pertaining to, or suited to the common people" (early 15c.). Chaucer uses peplish for "vulgar, common, plebeian" (late 14c.). Related: Vulgarly. The word is perhaps from late 13c. as a surname, if [Hugh the] Wulger is what it appears to be. 

What we have added to human depravity is again a thoroughly Roman quality, perhaps even a Roman invention: vulgarity. That word means the mind of the herd, and specifically the herd in the city, the gutter, and the tavern. [Guy Davenport, "Wheel Ruts"]

Vulgar Latin was the everyday speech of the Roman people, as opposed to literary Latin; the modern spoken Romanic languages largely are descended from Vulgar Latin. For more on it, see here.

    Advertisement

    More to explore

    slang
    1756, "special vocabulary of tramps or thieves" or any set of persons of low character, later "jargon of a particular profession" (1801). The sense of "very informal language characterized by vividness and novelty" is by 1818. Anatoly Liberman writes here an extensive account of
    cant
    "pretentious or insincere talk, ostentatious conventionality in speech," 1709. The earliest use is as a slang word for "the whining speech of beggars asking for alms" (1640s), from the verb in this sense (1560s), from Old North French canter (Old French chanter) "to sing, chant,"
    jargon
    mid-14c., "unintelligible talk, gibberish; chattering, jabbering," from Old French jargon "a chattering" (of birds), also "language, speech," especially "idle talk; thieves' Latin" (12c.). Ultimately of echoic origin (compare Latin garrire "to chatter"). From 1640s as "mixed spee
    Romance
    mid-14c., "French; in the vernacular language of France" (contrasted to Latin), from Old French romanz "French; vernacular...
    dynamite
    Positive sense of "dynamic and excellent" by mid-1960s, perhaps originally African-American vernacular....
    specialty
    c. 1300, "particular affection; special attachment or favor, partiality," from Old French especialte, the more vernacular...
    propriety
    15c., "fitness, proper character," from Old French proprieté "individuality, peculiarity; property," a later form of the vernacular...
    groat
    medieval European coin, late 14c., probably from Middle Dutch groot, elliptical use of the adjective meaning "great, big" (in this case, "thick"), from the name of some large coin (for example the Bremen grote sware, and compare Medieval Latin grossi denarii in reference to a Pra
    argot
    1860, from French argot (17c.) "the jargon of Paris rogues and thieves" (for purposes of disguise and concealment), earlier "the company of beggars," from French argot, "group of beggars," a word of unknown origin. Gamillscheg suggests a connection to Old French argoter "to cut o
    common
    c. 1300, "belonging to all, owned or used jointly, general, of a public nature or character," from Old French comun "common, general, free, open, public" (9c., Modern French commun), from Latin communis "in common, public, shared by all or many; general, not specific; familiar, n

    Share vernacular

    Advertisement
    Trending
    Dictionary entries near vernacular
    Advertisement