vernacular

Etymology

From Latin vernāculus (“domestic, indigenous, of or pertaining to home-born slaves”), from verna (“a native, a home-born slave (one born in his master's house)”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /vəˈnækjələ/, /vəˈnækjʊlə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /vɚˈnækjəlɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækjələ(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: ver‧nac‧u‧lar

Noun

vernacular (plural vernaculars)

1. The language of a people or a national language.

   A vernacular of the United States is English.

2. Everyday speech or dialect, including colloquialisms, as opposed to literary, liturgical, or scientific language.

   Street vernacular can be quite different from what is heard elsewhere.

3. Language unique to a particular group of people; jargon, argot.

   For those of a certain age, hiphop vernacular might just as well be a foreign language.

4. (Roman Catholicism) The indigenous language of a people, into which the words of the Mass are translated.

   Vatican II allowed the celebration of the mass in the vernacular.

Adjective

vernacular (comparative more vernacular, superlative most vernacular)

1. Of or pertaining to everyday language.
2. Belonging to the country of one's birth; one's own by birth or nature; native; indigenous.

   a vernacular disease

3. (architecture) Of or related to local building materials and styles; not imported.
4. (art) Connected to a collective memory; not imported.

Further reading

• vernacular in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• vernacular in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• vernacular at OneLook Dictionary Search

Adjective

vernacular m, f (plural vernaculares, comparable)

1. vernacular (pertaining to everyday language)