vocative

From Late Middle English [Term?], borrowed from Middle French vocatif, from Latin vocātīvus (“for calling”); a calque of Ancient Greek κλητῐκή (klētĭkḗ, “for calling; vocative case”) – from vocāre (“to call”), from Proto-Indo-European *wokʷ-, o-grade of *wekʷ- (“give vocal utterance, speak”). See Latin vōx.

• (General American) enPR: väk'ətĭv, vōk'ətĭv, IPA^(key): /ˈvɑkətɪv/, /ˈvoʊkətɪv/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: vŏk'ətĭv, IPA^(key): /ˈvɒkətɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (Dublin) IPA^(key): /ˈvakətɪv/

vocative (comparative more vocative, superlative most vocative)

1. Of or pertaining to calling; used in calling or vocation.
2. (grammar) Used in address; appellative; said of the case or form of the noun, pronoun, or adjective by which a person or thing is addressed. In English, it is indicated by an addressee–address separation comma, or by the particle O before the addressee. As examples: "sir" in "What is the matter, sir?", "Mother" in "Mother, listen!", and "O Lord". Compare et tu, Brute.

• vocal

vocative (plural vocatives)

1. (grammar) The vocative case
2. (grammar) A word in the vocative case
3. (grammar) A vocative expression
4. (rare) Something said to (or as though to) a particular person or thing; an entreaty, an invocation.
   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter L”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC:

     [T]he two latter will hardly come neither, if they think it will be to hear your whining vocatives.

• interjection
• Fiction essentials: vocative expressions, Black Cat Editorial Services

vocative

1. feminine plural of vocativo

vocātīve

1. vocative masculine singular of vocātīvus

• “vocative”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• vocative in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

vocative n pl

1. plural of vocativ