Etymology

vocalese

V4O1C3A1L1E1S1E1

Today it means: Jazz singing genre where the lyrics are written to melodies that were originally parts of an all-instrumental composition or improvisation. Full definition →

English vocal ← Middle English vocal ← Latin vōcālis
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*wekʷ-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*wṓkʷs
  3. Proto-Italic*wōks
  4. Latinvōx
  5. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
  7. Latinvōcālis
  8. Middle Englishvocal
  9. Englishvocal
  10. English todayvocalese

From vocal + -ese.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.