Also 6 -arye, 7 -arie. [ad. med.L. vocābulāri-us, -um, f. L. vocābulum VOCABLE sb.: see -ARY1. Hence also It., Sp., Pg. vocabulario, F. vocabulaire (1481). Cf. VOCABULAR sb., VOCABULER.]
1. A collection or list of words with brief explanations of their meanings; now esp. a list of this kind given in an elementary grammar or reading-book of a foreign language.
Longer vocabularies are usually arranged alphabetically or according to subject-headings. In philological grammars and readers the vocabulary is commonly termed a glossary.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 427/1. Then must he with his translacion make vs an Englishe vocabularye of his own deuise too.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 55. Maister Heskins fareth as hee were halfe madde, sending vs to the Vocabularies, Calepines, and Dictionaries.
1611. Cotgr., Vocabulaire, a Vocabularie, Dictionarie.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VII. ix. 355. This is the proper signification of the word, [it is] thus used in Scripture by the Septuagint, [and] Greeke vocabularies thus expound it.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., III. xi. 260. A vocabulary made after this fashion, would, perhaps, with more ease, and in less time, teach the true signification of many Terms.
1741. Watts, Improv. Mind (1801), 41. It is necessary that we should be furnished with Vocabularies and Dictionaries of several sorts.
1816. Tuckey, Narr. Exped. R. Zaire, ii. (1818), 65. From our visitors I procured a vocabulary of their language.
1857. T. Wright (title), A Volume of Vocabularies. Ibid., Pref. One of the most valuable of the later vocabularies here printed.
1884. Bradley, Latin Prose Composition, 353. General Vocabulary. Ibid. The Latin words in this Vocabulary are not necessarily equivalent to the English.
fig. 1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 598/1. As I wene it is expouned in god almightes vocabulary.
transf. 1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacrae, I. i. § 3. Otherwise all the use of words is to be a meer vocabulary to the understanding, and an Index to memory.
b. Const. of. (Passing into the sense of ‘list.’)
1821. J. Q. Adams, in C. Davies, Metric Syst. (1871), III. 145. A vocabulary of new denominations was annexed to every weight and measure belonging to it.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Man of Many Fr. (Colburn), 137. He heard a vocabulary of dishes enumerated with grace and fluency [by the French cook].
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. xvi. 309. The most complete vocabulary of arms … in the Old Testament is taken from the panoply of a Philistine warrior.
c. Naut. (See quot.)
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 714. Vocabulary, the system of naval signals based on Sir Home Popham’s improvements.
2. The range of language of a particular person, class, profession or the like.
Used with limiting terms (possessives, adjectives, etc.).
1753. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), III. 20. I wore out … my vocabulary with commending.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, VIII. v. Let nerves be discarded from the female vocabulary.
1815. J. Cormack, Abol. Fem. Infanticide Guzerat, x. 196. The almost infinite labours of an individual, from whose vocabulary the word impossible seems to have been excluded.
1851. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., I. 2. An Innocent, in Shakesperian vocabulary, signifies an Idiot.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xxix. The actor … had erased the words ‘ought’ and ‘ought not’ from his vocabulary as completely as most of his contemporaries.
b. Const. of (some quality, feeling, etc.).
1770. Cumberland, West Indian, IV. x. In the vocabulary of modern honour there is no such term.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xii. 129. His eloquence becoming more and more … vituperative, until it has exhausted either his strength or his vocabulary of invective.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 5. The rank vocabulary of malice and hate.
1884. J. Sharman, Hist. Swearing, v. 80. The more religion appeals to the senses, the more fecund has been the vocabulary of oaths.
c. With a, or without article.
1837. Emerson, Addr., Amer. Schol., Wks. (Bohn), II. 181. If it were only for a vocabulary, the scholar would be covetous of action.
1892. C. Taylor, Witness of Hermas to Four Gosp., 130. On the principle that vocabulary is an indication of an author’s literary sources.
1898. Watts-Dunton, Aylwin, V. i. ‘To repeat one’s words,’ I said quietly, shows a limited vocabulary.
3. The sun or aggregate of words composing a language.
1782. V. Knox, Ess., cxiv. (1819), II. 285. The Latin Fathers … wrote … well enough to preserve a skill in the construction and vocabulary of the language.
1841. Borrow, Zincali, II. ii. III. 107. It is no longer a sealed language, its laws, structure, and vocabulary being sufficiently well known.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1877), I. i. 4. The largest infusion that the vocabulary of one European tongue ever received from another.
1882. A. W. Ward, Dickens, vii. 206. He recognised his responsibility … in keeping the vocabulary of the language pure.
