vote
Definitions
General English
- noun the act of marking a paper, holding up your hand, etc., to show your opinion or who you want to be elected
- verb to mark a paper, to hold up your hand, etc., to show your opinion or who you want to be elected
Banking
- verb to show an opinion by marking a paper or by holding up your hand at a meeting
Politics
- noun the right to vote in elections
- noun the total number of votes cast
Origin & History of “vote”
Vote goes back ultimately to Latin vovēre ‘promise solemnly, wish for’. Its past participle was vōtus, which fed directly into English as the verb vote; the noun vote comes from the Latin derivative vōtum. The modern English meaning of the word comes from the notion of expressing one’s ‘wishes’ by means of casting a ballot. ‘Wishing, desiring’ was a secondary semantic development of the Latin verb; its original meaning, ‘promise solemnly’, is preserved in English vow (13th c.), which comes via Anglo-Norman vou from Latin vōtum.
