voice [ME] A word derived from Latin vox ‘voice’ and related to vocabulary [M16th], vocal [ME], vocation [LME], and vociferous [E17th], while the verb vocare ‘to call’ appears in convoke [L16th] ‘call together’; equivocate [LME] literally ‘call by the same name’; evoke [E17th] ‘call out’; invoke [LME] ‘call upon’; provoke [LME] ‘call forth’; revoke [LME] ‘call back’; and vouch [ME] and voucher [E16th]. Vowel [ME] is from Old French vouel, from Latin vocalis (littera) ‘vocal (letter)’. The Latin root survives in vox pop, ‘an informal survey of people’s opinion’, which is short for Latin vox populi or ‘voice of the people’. When people refer to an ignored advocate of reform as a voice in the wilderness they are echoing the words of John the Baptist proclaiming the coming of the Messiah: ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.’