| 1 | Old French | verbal | — |
| 2 | Late Latin | verbalis | belonging to a word; wordy, verbal |
| 3 | Latin | verbum | word; proverb, saying; verb |
| 4 | Ancient Greek | λόγος | That which is said: word, sentence, speech,... |
| 5 | Ancient Greek | λέγω | I put in order, arrange, gather; I choose, count,... |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | leǵ- | to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to... |