Etymology of ‘vocabulary’
The word "vocabulary" has its origins in Latin and has evolved over centuries. Its etymology can be traced back to the Latin word "vocabularium," which is a combination of "vocare" meaning "to call" or "to speak" and "-arium" which is a suffix indicating a place for or a collection of something.
In medieval Latin, "vocabularium" referred to a list or collection of words or terms. This term then made its way into Old French as "vocabulaire" and Middle English as "vocabularie," both of which retained the meaning of a collection of words used in a particular language or by a particular person or group.
The term "vocabulary" in English has been used since the late 16th century to refer to the words that a person knows or uses, the range of words used by a particular author, group, profession, etc., or the words contained in a particular language or subject. Today, it commonly refers to the entire set of words known and used by a particular person, group, profession, or in a particular language.
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