VERNACULAR

common, vernacular, vulgar

(adjective) being or characteristic of or appropriate to everyday language; “common parlance”; “a vernacular term”; “vernacular speakers”; “the vulgar tongue of the masses”; “the technical and vulgar names for an animal species”

vernacular

(noun) the everyday speech of the people (as distinguished from literary language)

slang, cant, jargon, lingo, argot, patois, vernacular

(noun) a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves); “they don’t speak our lingo”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Noun

vernacular (plural vernaculars)

The language of a people or a national language.

Everyday speech or dialect, including colloquialisms, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.

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

A language lacking standardization or a written form.

Indigenous spoken language, as distinct from a literary or liturgical language such as Ecclesiastical Latin.

Synonyms

• (language unique to a group): dialect, idiom, argot, jargon, slang

• (language of a people): vulgate

Antonyms

• (national language): lingua franca, link language, vehicular language

Adjective

vernacular (comparative more vernacular, superlative most vernacular)

Of or pertaining to everyday language, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.

Belonging to the country of one's birth; one's own by birth or nature; native; indigenous.

(architecture) Of or related to local building materials and styles; not imported.

(art) Connected to a collective memory; not imported.

Synonyms

• (of everyday language): common, everyday, indigenous, ordinary, vulgar, colloquial

• (architecture): folk

Source: Wiktionary

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Ver*nac"u*lar, a. Etym: [L. vernaculus born in one's house, native, fr. verna a slave born in his master's house, a native, probably akin to Skr. vas to dwell, E. was.]

Definition: Belonging to the country of one's birth; one's own by birth or nature; native; indigenous; -- now used chiefly of language; as, English is our vernacular language. "A vernacular disease." Harvey. His skill the vernacular dialect of the Celtic tongue. Fuller. Which in our vernacular idiom may be thus interpreted. Pope.

Ver*nac"u*lar, n.

Definition: The vernacular language; one's mother tongue; often, the common forms of expression in a particular locality.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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