Etymograph

English

vox

Vox comes from Latin vōx ‘voice’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- ‘to speak’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wekʷ-1‘to speak’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wṓkʷs1‘speech, voice’reconstructedo-grade root noun of *wekʷ-
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wōks1‘voice’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvōx2‘voice’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2018vox2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin vox
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English vox
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2018, Gary Hudson, Sarah Rowlands: “The junior can offer to do the voxes, gaining…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wekʷ-Wiktionary, Latin vox‘to speak’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wṓkʷsWiktionary, Latin vox‘speech, voice’reconstructedo-grade root noun of *wekʷ-
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wōksWiktionary, Latin vox‘voice’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvōxWiktionary, English vox‘voice’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2018voxWiktionary, English vox. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2018, Gary Hudson, Sarah Rowlands: “The junior can offer to do the voxes, gaining…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- ‘to speak’

epic, wight, whit, epos, 30 more

through Proto-Italic *wōks ‘voice’

vocalist, voiceless, vocally, vocalize, 26 more

through Latin vōx ‘voice’

voice, invite, invitation, vocal, vie, invoke, vouch, invocation, vociferous, 26 more

Today it means

noun The voice, especially one's singing voice; vocals.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “vox”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin vox. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ- / vox

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