vocative

Meanings

1. Of or pertaining to calling; used in calling or vocation.
2. Used in address; appellative; said of the case or form of the noun, pronoun, or adjective by which a person or thing is addressed.

1. The vocative case
2. A word in the vocative case
3. A vocative expression
4. Something said to (or as though to) a particular person or thing; an entreaty, an invocation.

Etymology

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.