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
But the particular kind of white night of which Volapük was born is the 93 nuit blanche, literally = "white night," but idiomatically = "night of insomnia."
From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Clark, Walter John
In the Code of Signals we had a language of our own, more immediate and attractive than Volapük or Esperanto.
From Merchantmen-at-arms : the British merchants' service in the war by Bone, David W. (David William)
But, like Volapük, Esperanto found its great apostle in France.
From The Task of Social Hygiene by Ellis, Havelock
Such manufactured lingos as Esperanto, Volapuk, Ido, Novial, Occidental he rejected as unrealistic, improbable.
From Time Magazine Archive
I had a story of Alexander Dumas' about his Musketeers that he wanted translated from French into American, which is the language we speak below, in preference to German, French, Volapuk, or English.
From The Enchanted Typewriter by Bangs, John Kendrick
But the main idea held good; and since that time Volapuk, Bolak, Esperanto and Ido have appeared, but without meeting with great success.
From A Busy Year at the Old Squire's by Stephens, C. A. (Charles Asbury)
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)
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
