Vocal

a. and sb. [ad. L. vōcāl-is uttering voice, speaking, etc., f. vōc-, vox voice + -AL. 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, trans. 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 or 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.  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).

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.

  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. (1827), I. 19. 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. 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.  R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 199. I am sure neither are Canonicall, neither the meere vocal 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, trans. Hor., Odes, III. i. 23. Nor chaunt of birds, nor vocal lyre To him can sleep afford.

1760.  Fawkes, trans. Anacreon, Ode, i. 5. Rapt I strike the vocal Shell—Hark—the trembling Chords rebel.

  5.  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, Nunism., 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.  Operative or concerned in the production of voice. Freq. in vocal chord, organs, 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.

  b.  spec. Connected with the utterance of vowel-sounds.

1887.  Alien. & Neurol., VIII. 7. The vocal (vowel) mechanism is the first that is manifested in the child.

  7.  Of or belonging to the voice († or sound).

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.  Lady Herbert, Edith, 6. Indifferent to everything but his child’s beauty and vocal talents.

  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. Ibid. (1887), 4 March, 1/2. The most vocal class in the whole community, as the legal profession may fairly be described.

  B.  sb. 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, 61. I am afraid I should only create disgust were I to dwell on other characters among the vocals, as they are designated.