Pronounced: bih-MYOOZ, verb
Notes: This word has some different meanings; I’m not sure I knew all of them
Yesterday’s word
The word votary means, as an adjective, “bound by a vow or relating to a vow”. As a noun, it means
- one who is devoted to an activity, person, institution, etc
- one who has taken vows to a religion (such as a monk or a nun)
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1500s
Background / Comments
Our word came from the Latin noun votum (vow), which came from the verb vovere (to vow). I said yesterday that our word’s meaning has nothing to do with “vote”, but we do get our word vote from the aforementioned Latin verb.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 