English
vaniloquy
Vaniloquy comes from Latin vāniloquium ‘idle talk’, from vānus ‘vain, empty, vacant, void’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-‘empty, leave, abandon, give out’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wānosreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvānus‘vain, empty, vacant, void’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEloquor‘to say, speak, tell, talk, utter’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEvāniloquium‘idle talk’
- Englishearliest quotation 1820vaniloquy
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-‘empty, leave, abandon, give out’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wānosreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvānus‘vain, empty, vacant, void’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEloquor‘to say, speak, tell, talk, utter’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEvāniloquium‘idle talk’
- Englishearliest quotation 1820vaniloquy
Earliest quotation: 1820, [Review of New Books.] Almanacks for 1821.: “The third is the glorious and immortal Vox Stellarum,…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘empty, leave, abandon, give out’
want, various, waste, variety, vast, vacation, vary, void, variable, vacant, evacuate, vacate, waning, wane, vacuous, varicella, 25 more
through Latin vānus ‘vain, empty, vacant, void’
vain, vanity, vanish, evanescent, 6 more
through Latin loquor ‘to say, speak, tell, talk, utter’
eloquent, colloquial, eloquence, interlocutor, colloquium, soliloquy, loquacious, 17 more
Today it means
noun Idle or vain talk.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- / vaniloquy