1880–85; vol, representing world + -a- connecting vowel + pük, representing speak
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Though “conlangs” are not a new phenomenon—Esperanto and Volapük were 19th-century examples—they have exploded since 1990.
From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2019
According to its own Wikipedia page, it has 17 million entries in more than 250 languages—including 118,000 in Volapük.
From BusinessWeek ● Jan. 6, 2011
The second is peculiar to Esperanto, and consists in the discrediting of the cause of international language through the failure of Volapük.
From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Clark, Walter John
In making his Volapük vocabulary, Father Schleyer has sought first for the simplest words now in use.
From Buchanan's Journal of Man, August 1887 Volume 1, Number 7 by Buchanan, Joseph R. (Joseph Rodes)
Thus the name, Volapük; vola meaning of the world, and pük language.
From Buchanan's Journal of Man, August 1887 Volume 1, Number 7 by Buchanan, Joseph R. (Joseph Rodes)
Such manufactured lingos as Esperanto, Volapuk, Ido, Novial, Occidental he rejected as unrealistic, improbable.
From Time Magazine Archive
There is but one universal language: the ocular—not Volapuk nor Esperanto is as intelligible or as efficacious as this.
From Hints for Lovers by Haultain, T. Arnold (Theodore Arnold)
He had heard the same outcry in his own city, for the slang of the street-rat is Volapuk the world over.
From The Fortunes of Oliver Horn by Smith, Francis Hopkinson
The universal language of humanity is neither Volapuk, nor Esperanto, nor Ido.
From Second Sight A study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance by Sepharial
Suppose that Abdul Baha decides on Esperanto, as he seems inclined to do, then will it be heresy for some one to invent a language as much superior to Esperanto as it is to Volapuk?
From Bahaism and Its Claims A Study of the Religion Promulgated by Baha Utlah and Abdul Baha by Wilson, Samuel Graham
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