vernacular

English

WOTD – 1 March 2010

Etymology

From Latin vernāculus (domestic, indigenous, of or pertaining to home-born slaves), from verna (a native, a home-born slave (one born in his master's house)).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /vəˈnækjələ/, /vəˈnækjʊlə/
  • (US) IPA(key): /vɚˈnækjəlɚ/
  • (file)
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ækjʊlə(ɹ)
  • Hyphenation: ver‧nac‧u‧lar

Noun

vernacular (plural vernaculars)

  1. The language of a people or a national language.
    Synonym: vulgate
    Coordinate terms: lingua franca, link language, vehicular language
    The vernacular of the United States is English.
  2. Everyday speech or dialect, including colloquialisms, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.
    Street vernacular can be quite different from what is heard elsewhere.
  3. Language unique to a particular group of people.
    Synonyms: jargon, argot, dialect, slang
    For those of a certain age, hiphop vernacular might just as well be a foreign language.
  4. A language lacking standardization or a written form.
  5. Indigenous spoken language, as distinct from a literary or liturgical language such as Ecclesiastical Latin.
    Vatican II allowed the celebration of the mass in the vernacular.
  6. (architecture) A style of architecture involving local building materials and styles; not imported.

Descendants

  • Irish: béarlagair

Translations

Further reading

Adjective

vernacular (comparative more vernacular, superlative most vernacular)

  1. Of or pertaining to everyday language, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.
    Synonyms: common, everyday, indigenous, ordinary, vulgar, colloquial
    • 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 111:
      There are blacktips, silvertips, bronze whalers, black whalers, spinner sharks, and bignose sharks. These of course are vernacular names, but this is one case where the scientific nomenclature does not clarify the species, since it is now being revised.
  2. Belonging to the country of one's birth; one's own by birth or nature.
    Synonyms: native, indigenous
    a vernacular disease
  3. (architecture) Of or related to local building materials and styles; not imported.
    Synonym: folk
  4. (art) Connected to a collective memory; not imported.
  5. (taxonomy) Not attempting to use the rules of a taxonomic code, especially, not using scientific Latin.
    An English vernacular name for Rosa multiflora is multiflora rose.

Antonyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 
  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /veʁ.na.kuˈlaʁ/ [veɦ.na.kuˈlah]
    • (São Paulo) IPA(key): /veɾ.na.kuˈlaɾ/
    • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA(key): /veʁ.na.kuˈlaʁ/ [veʁ.na.kuˈlaχ]
    • (Southern Brazil) IPA(key): /veɻ.na.kuˈlaɻ/
 
  • (Portugal) IPA(key): /vɨɾ.nɐ.kuˈlaɾ/
    • (Northern Portugal) IPA(key): /bɨɾ.nɐ.kuˈlaɾ/
    • (Southern Portugal) IPA(key): /vɨɾ.nɐ.kuˈla.ɾi/

Adjective

vernacular m or f (plural vernaculares)

  1. vernacular (pertaining to everyday language)
    Synonym: vernáculo

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French vernaculaire.

Adjective

vernacular m or n (feminine singular vernaculară, masculine plural vernaculari, feminine and neuter plural vernaculare)

  1. vernacular

Declension

References

  • vernacular in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN
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