vocal, a. and n.
(ˈvəʊkəl)
[ad. L. vōcāl-is uttering voice, speaking, etc., f. vōc-, vox voice + -al1. So F., Sp., Pg. vocal, It. vocale.]
A. adj. I. 1. Uttered or communicated by the voice; spoken, oral: a. Of prayer. (Opposed to mental.)
| a 1395 Hylton Scala Perf. i. xxvii. (W. de W. 1494), This manere of prayer whiche is callid vocal. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 159 Bycause this prayer is for the hole chirche, necessary it is that it be vocall, that is to say, eyther songe or distinctly sayd with voyce. 1563 Homilies ii. Com. Prayer Ppp iiij, Let vs se whether the Scriptures..wyll allow any vocall prayer, that is, when the mouth vttereth the peticions with voyce. 1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Answ. ii. (1653) 8 Which Prayers were so farre from being Prescript Formes or Liturgies that they were not vocall but mentall Prayers. 1671 Woodhead St. Teresa i. vi. 314 If Vocal Prayer be made, as it should, even Mental is an ingredient into it. 1766 Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wm. (1767) II. xi. 148 Vocal prayer, whether more or less articulate, will be found..by far the most proportioned to the human..faculties. 1782 Priestley Corrupt. Chr. II. ix. 151 Instead of the ancient severities [of penance], vocal prayers came to be all that was enjoined. 1862 Lond. Rev. 26 July 84 The dangers of unreality and self-delusion with which vocal prayers were beset. 1884 Cath. Dict. 569 St. Benedict supposes that some of his monks will pray after the vocal prayers of the office with tears and application of heart. |
b. In other contexts.
| 1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Fam. Love 53 b, Why then do they make accompt of it, but as a vocall word, and outward sounde? 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. ix. 278 He is diligent and faithfull in preaching the Gospel: either by his pen..or by his vocall sermons. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 232 Messengers, who deliver their missives by vocal relation. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 198 Forth came the human pair, And joynd thir vocal Worship to the Quire Of Creatures wanting voice. 1725 Pope Odyss. viii. 42 When high he sings The vocal lay responsive to the strings. 1757 Gray Bard 120 What strains of vocal transport round her play. 1818 Stoddart in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) I. 90/1 It is quite enough that we have one vocal sign, one organic articulation, to advertise the hearer, that what we say is not in the subject of which we speak. 1874 Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. xcii. 1 Silent worship is sweet, but vocal worship is sweeter. 1887 Ruskin Præterita II. 191 John Hobbs, called always..George, to distinguish him, in vocal summons, from my father and me. |
† c. Expressed in words. Obs.—1
| 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey iii. i. 65 The Propriety of Possessions..may be deuided into Vocall and Evidential. Vocall Propriety denotates the Properties of particulars by due Appellation. |
d. Of sound: Produced by the voice; spec. of the nature of words or speech.
| 1623 Massinger Bondman i. iii, If a virgin..Presume to clothe her thought in vocal sounds, Let her find pardon. 1669 Holder Elem. Speech 23 A vibration of those Cartilaginous Bodies which forms that Breath, into a Vocal sound or Voice. 1693 Dryden Ovid's Met. xii. 571 Her Words were in her Clamour drown'd; For my stun'd Ears receiv'd no vocal Sound. 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 305/1 If any two human beings can by vocal sounds mutually convey to each other their desires. 1860 Farrar Orig. Language i. 19 The mere possession of vocal cries not different from those of animals. 1864 Bowen Logic ii. 31 Vocal sound is the Matter of speech. |
2. a. Of music: Performed by, composed for, the voice; that is sung or intended for singing. (Opposed to instrumental.)
| c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. xcviii. ii, O sing,..Make lute a part with vocall musique beare. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 486 Giving herselfe to learne poesie, and likewise vocall musicke. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 161 Vocal-Musick, performed by Instruments which Nature hath invented for delight, ought not to be set at naught. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 276 The Morning being ushered in with Vocal and Instrumental Musick. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 405 ¶8 Vocal and Instrumental Musick were made use of in their Religious Worship. 1795 Mason Ch. Music i. 24 When the Greek and Latin writers treat of Instrumental Music..they seldom, if ever, consider it as separated from Vocal. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVI. 22/1 In the accompaniment to vocal music, much greater freedom of imitation is allowable than in the voice part. 1864 Engel Mus. Anc. Nat. 9 Vocal music, regarded historically, takes precedence by its antiquity of instrumental music. |
b. Connected with singing. vocal score (see quot. 1876); vocal line [line n.2 7 h].
| 1799 Monthly Rev. XXX. 535 The vocal taste of Spain must be very much degenerated, or that of France improved, if the same singer can excite equal rapture in the capitals of both countries. 1822 C. Butler Hist. Mem. Eng. Cath. IV. xcviii. 464 [Ancient Greek music] was governed by rhythm and quarter tones made a part of its regular vocal scale. 1857 Canon Ainger in E. Sichel Life & Lett. (1906) 43, I..shall place myself in a snug corner of the hall, with the vocal score in my hands. 1876 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms 388/2 A vocal score is (or was formerly understood to be) one in which the voice-parts are written out in full, and the accompaniment (if any) is indicated by a figured bass. 1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 190 The disparity between the vocal line and its harmonic background [in Les Noces]. 1961 [see line n.2 7 h]. 1963 Listener 7 Feb. 264/3 The orchestral skill..the command of texture and expressive colour, and the judging of instrumental comment on the vocal line. |
3. a. Having the character of a vowel; vocalic.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xv[i]. (Arb.) 141 The foote (Tribrachus) of three short times is very hard to be made by any of our trissillables vnles they be compounded of the smoothest sort of consonants or sillables vocals. 1631 Weever Anc. Funeral Mon. To Rdr. 7 Also E vocall, for E dipthong. 1736 Ainsworth Lat. Dict. ii. s.v. I, They give it [sc. i, j] a name from its consonant use, we from the vocal. 1807 Southey Espriella's Lett. I. 279 As their delicate ears could bear none but vocal terminations. |
b. Actually uttered or sounded. rare.
| 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 88 ¶11 There is reason to believe that the silent e which our ancestors added to the most of our monosyllables,..was once vocal. 1755 Johnson s.v. E, Afterwards it [the letter e] was in poetry either mute or vocal, as the verse required. |
c. Phonetics. Uttered with voice (as distinguished from breath); voiced, sonant.
| 1668 Wilkins Real Char. iii. xii. §2. 369 (Zh) the sonorous Consonant, and (Sh) its correspondent mute, are framed by a percolation of the breath, betwixt the tongue rendered concave, and the teeth both upper and lower: The first being vocal, the other mute. 1669 W. Holder Elem. Speech 53 B. is Vocal, Labial, Occluse. Ibid. 58 L. and R...are not easie..to be pronounced spiritally,..but are apt to get a tincture of Vocal sound. 1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 35 The semi-vowels may be subdivided into vocal and aspirated. The vocal are those which are formed by the voice; the aspirated, those formed by the breath. 1847 Proc. Philol. Soc. III. 72 Examples beginning with a vocal letter are found both in the Chinese and in other languages. 1874 Sweet in Trans. Philol. Soc. 538 There can be no doubt that the f in Early Old English was vocal like the Welsh f. |
II. 4. a. Endowed with a voice, possessed of utterance; exercising the power of speech or of uttering sounds.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 233 Brought there were thither..such [frogs] as would crie in the water: and that whole kind still remaineth vocall. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 199, I am sure neither are Canonicall, neither the meere vocall Preacher, nor the Preaching Auditor. 1668 H. More Div. Dial. iii. xxxiv. (1713) 271 As probable as the black Hunter ranging the Forest with his vocal, but invisible, Hounds in Fountainbleau. 1733 Pope Essay on Man iii. 157, In the same temple, the resounding wood, All vocal beings hymn'd their equal God. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 339 These insects are generally vocal in the midst of summer. c 1792 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) IX. 529/1 The organs of all vocal animals are so formed, as, upon any particular impulse, to utter sounds. 1877 Tyndall in Daily News 2 Oct. 2/5 Though the mechanical theory of a vocal Heavenly multitude proves untenable. |
b. transf. Of inanimate things, places, etc.
| 1646 J. Hall Poems 57 Were but this Marble vocall, there such an Elogium would appeare As [etc.]. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 530 He..with Serpent Tongue Organic, or impulse of vocal Air, His fraudulent temptation thus began. 1710 W. King Heathen Gods & Heroes x. (1722) 40 How these Oracles were deliver'd, is a Controversie, whether by two Doves that spoke, or by the Leaves of the Oaks themselves, which became Vocal. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 159 The poet's or historian's page, by one Made vocal for th' amusement of the rest. 1796 Southey Lett. fr. Spain (1799) 160 Many a stream That from the neighbouring hill descended clear Wound vocal thro' the valley. 1825 Lamb Elia ii. Superannuated Man, Stones of old Mincing Lane,..to the footsteps of what toil-worn clerk are your everlasting flints now vocal? 1837 Wilkinson Mann. & Cust. Anc. Egypt ii. (1841) I. 59 note, The vocal statue of the supposed Memnon is of Amunoph III. 1890 W. J. Gordon Foundry 156 There are seven steam-hammers..and a remarkably vocal saw for cutting red-hot iron. |
c. Of musical instruments. Chiefly poet.
| a 1700 Evelyn Diary 5 Oct. 1664, There was brought a new invented instrument of musiq,..made vocal by a wheele, and a zone of parchment that rubb'd horizontaly against the strings. 1738 Wesley Ps. cxxxvii. ii, Our Harps, no longer vocal now, We cast aside. 1743 Francis tr. Hor., Odes iii. i. 23 Nor chaunt of birds, nor vocal lyre To him can sleep afford. 1760 Fawkes tr. Anacreon, Ode i. 5 Rapt I strike the vocal Shell—Hark—the trembling Chords rebel. |
5. a. fig. Conveying impressions or ideas as if by speech; expressive, eloquent.
| 1608 Topsell Serpents 134 By a mute and silent way it ascendeth, and bringeth all things mortall to a vocall iustice, which speaketh in action though not in voyce. 1608–11 Bp. Hall Epist. (1643) 328 Accusations are vocall, Apologies dumbe. 1697 Evelyn Numism. Introd. 1 Medals..(give me leave to call them) Vocal Monuments of Antiquity. 1720 Welton Suffer. Son of God I. xiii. 343 The Multitude of my successive Miseries might become Vocal, and never cease to Importune Thy Mercy. 1724 R. Welton Christ. Faith & Pract. 209 That vocal blood and those speaking wounds. 1897 Garden 24 April 294/3 Every leaf is vocal, and the air is full of the moist fragrance of the earth. |
| Comb. 1649 Owen Shaking & Transl. Heav. & Earth 36 The works of God..are vocall-speaking works: the minde of God is in them. |
b. spec. (See quot.) rare—0.
| 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Arms, Speaking, or Vocal Arms, are those wherein the Figures bear an Allusion to the Name of the Family. |
6. a. Operative or concerned in the production of voice. Freq. in vocal chord, vocal fold, vocal organs, vocal tract, etc.
| 1644 Digby Nat. Bodies xxxvi. §14. 318 Who would looke curiously into the motions of the dispositions of a beastes vocal instruments. 1656 Blount Glossogr. s.v., Vocal nerves are those noble sinews, which have the vertue of forming the speech. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Recurrent Nerves, by some called Vocal, because they are spent upon the Instruments of Speech. 1751 Harris Hermes Wks. (1841) 208 What these vocal organs precisely are, is not in all respects agreed by philosophers and anatomists. 1842 Penny Cycl. XXII. 429/2 The upward current of air passing through the larynx produces an effect on the vocal ligaments. 1872 Huxley Physiol. vii. 178 These sharp free edges of the glottis are the so-called vocal chords or vocal ligaments. 1887 Buck's Handbk. Med. Sci. IV. 391/2 The vocal bands deserve a separate notice on account of their great physiological importance. 1936 Summ. Doct. Diss. Northwestern Univ. IV. 183 Many investigations have been carried on to determine how the vocal folds vibrate. 1940 Bell System Techn. Jrnl. XIX. 496 Message waves are produced as muscular motions in the vocal tract. 1960 Jrnl. Speech & Hearing Res. III. 159/1 An investigator observed the image of the subject's vocal folds in the laryngeal mirror. 1961 Jrnl. Acoustical Soc. Amer. XXX. 1725/2 The generally accepted theory of speech production views the speech wave as the result of acoustic excitation of the vocal tract by one or more sources... The characteristics of the glottal source are to a large extent independent of the vocal-tract configuration anterior to the glottis. 1977 D. Fry Homo Loquens iii. 30 The process of articulation..depends on continual changes in the shape of the vocal tract, and hence in its acoustic properties. 1981 Word 1980 XXXI. 152 The disruptions..due to the effects of coupling between the larynx and the supraglottal tract on the rate of vibration of the vocal folds. |
b. spec. Connected with the utterance of vowel-sounds; = vocalic a. 2.
| 1788 Asiatick Res. I. 13 This is the simplest element of articulation, or first vocal sound, concerning which enough has been said: the word America begins and ends with it; and its proper symbol therefore is A. 1818 Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. I. 246 The vocal sounds are those which are represented in alphabets by the letters we call vowels. 1887 Alien. & Neurol. VIII. 7 The vocal (vowel) mechanism is the first that is manifested in the child. |
7. a. Of or belonging to the voice († or sound). Also Comb., as vocal-auditory adj.
| 1644 Bulwer Chirol. 4 In the report of a Piece, the eye being the nimbler sense, discernes the discharge before any intelligence by conduct of the vocall Wave arrive at the eare. 1654 H. L'Estrange Chas. I (1655) 1 Though his [Charles's] vocall impediment accompanyed him till the fatall stroke. 1795 Mason Ch. Music ii. 154 They must still endeavour to hit that precise medium in the vocal faculty, which pronounces and sings at the same time. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop lxii, Mr. Quilp was certainly entertaining himself with vocal exercise. 1862 H. W. Fuller Dis. Chest i. iii. 18 This ‘vocal fremitus’ is more pronounced in adults than in children. 1881 M. E. Herbert Edith 6 Indifferent to everything but his child's beauty and vocal talents. 1958 Proc. 8th Internat. Congr. Linguists 754 Despite eloquent pleas,..that writing can and should be considered as basically a visual system independent of the vocal-auditory process, is it likely that any system of writing would be seriously proposed to-day that was not based on some attempt at a systematic correlation with the spoken language? 1981 Amer. Speech LVI. 130 Sign language is as adequate for the deaf as any vocal-auditory language is for a hearing person. |
b. Of the nature of voice or sound.
| a 1826 Heber Transl. Pindar ii. 158 Of vocal shafts..that wildly fly. 1844 Mrs. Browning Lady Geraldine's Courtship xliv, 'Tis the eyes that shoot out vocal light. |
8. Full of voice or sound; sounding, resounding. Also const. by, with.
| 1667 Milton P.L. v. 204 Hill, or Valley, Fountain, or fresh shade Made vocal by my Song. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. iv. 4 Sicilian Muse prepare To make the vocal Woods deserve a Consul's care. 1717 Pope Eloisa 140 Such plain roofs as Piety could raise, And only vocal with the Maker's praise. 1746 Hervey Medit. (1818) 247 She flies the vocal grove, and shuns the society of all the feathered choir. 1823 Byron Age of Bronze xi, This was not the method of old Rome, When Tully fulmined o'er each vocal dome. 1834 Pringle Afr. Sk. viii. 288 The inland streams..are vocal in spring with the shrill chirping of millions of frogs. 1868 Farrar Silence & V. i. (1875) 8 When all the air is vocal with whispering trees, and singing birds. |
9. Readily or freely expressing oneself in speech; giving vent to one's views or opinions.
| 1871 Smiles Charac. ix. (1876) 256 The modern English, as compared..with their nimbler more communicative and vocal..neighbours, the modern French and Irish. 1881 Pall Mall G. 10 Feb. 1/1 That policy [of coercion in Ireland] may have done something to pacify..an influential and highly vocal class in England. 1887 Ibid. 4 March 1/2 The most vocal class in the whole community, as the legal profession may fairly be described. |
B. n.
1. a. A vowel. Obs.
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis To Rdr. (Arb.) 14 Where the next woord following beginneth with a vocal. 1586 ― Treat. Irel. 9/2 in Holinshed I, In corruption of common talke we find that (u) with his vocale is easilie lost and suppressed; so we saie ere for euer [etc.]. |
† b. A voiced consonant. Obs.
| 1669 Holder Elem. Speech 78 To soften the Occluse Gingival Consonants, by a kind of..addition of a Spirital..to a Vocal producing the Vowel. |
2. Vocal faculty; power of speech.
| 1838 Mrs. Browning Seraphim ii. 112 Hath language left thy lips, to place Its vocal in thine eye? |
3. A member of a Roman Catholic body who has a right to vote in certain elections.
| a 1660 Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.) II. 109 In Conaght, on the 15th of August, 1650, all the vocalls of the whole province there apeeringe, and of Carons faction..were the undernamed (though not all, but some, before theire transgression were vocalls). 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v., A Man must have been a Religious a certain number of Years, to be a Vocal. 1811 W. Jacob Trav. S. Spain 64, I am afraid I should only create disgust were I to dwell on other characters among the vocals, as they are designated. |
4. a. Vocal music; singing.
| 1928 S. Lewis Man who knew Coolidge i. 30 She felt more kind of called to the music line, and she was taking vocal and piano. 1968 Blues Unlimited Sept. 26 For strange vocal try to hear Daniel Brown's version. |
b. A musical composition written for, or including a part for, the voice; a vocal part.
| 1934 S. R. Nelson All about Jazz iv. 84 A succession of vocals in radio music is sometimes tiresome. 1938 D. Baker Young Man with Horn iv. 171 He had them pretty heavily arranged, with a transitional passage before every vocal. 1957 R. Hoggart Uses of Literacy viii. 203 Almost all [the records] are ‘vocals’ and the styles of singing much advanced beyond what is normally heard on the Light Programme of the B.B.C. 1975 A. Ayckbourn Norman Conquests 14 He does a dance to the music and sings as the vocal starts. 1983 Sunday Tel. 9 Oct. 24/2 The cost of a machine with a complete package of 400 songs with the vocals edited out, is {pstlg}600. |