Where does “voice” come from?
Voice comes from Middle English voys, formed by adding the Middle English suffix -en to a word derived from Latin vox meaning "sound" or "utterance," which traces back to Proto-Indo-European wekʷ-.
voice (English): Sound uttered by the mouth, especially by human...
Definitions
- Sound uttered by the mouth, especially by human...
Ancestry of “voice”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | voys | A voice; the sound a human or other speaking... |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | voiz | voice |
| 3 | Latin | vocem | accusative singular of vōx; first-person singular... |
| 4 | Latin | vox | voice; accent; speech, remark, expression, ... |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | wōks | voice |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | wṓkʷs | voice, speech |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | wekʷ- | to speak, to sound out |
Words derived from “voice”