devotion
/dɪˈvəʊʃən/dih-VOH-shuhn
/dɪˈvoʊʃən/dih-VOH-shuhn
Meaningthe act of vowing away
Common meaning: deep love or loyalty
Other meanings: religious worship
- dedown, away, off; undoing
- votto promise solemnly to a godLewis & Short, Latin Dictionary (1879), p. 2015 · scan
- ionnoun ending: act or result
‘down, away, off’ + ‘to promise solemnly to a god’ → devotion
Journey through time
- Latinvoveō, vōtum‘to promise solemnly to a god’
- Englishdevote‘to give wholly to’
- Englishformed in English from devotedevotion‘deep love or loyalty’ · today
Sources & notes
Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
- No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
- US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
- No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.
Origin: Formed in English from devote + -ion.
Dictionary: Skeat (1898), DEVOTE, p.164 · scan
Roots
- voveō, vōtum Latin “to promise solemnly to a god”
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