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
After Father Schleyer published his first book, in 1881, he was soon able to interest a few persons in Germany in Volapük.
From Buchanan's Journal of Man, August 1887 Volume 1, Number 7 by Buchanan, Joseph R. (Joseph Rodes)
We saw above that M. Kerckhoffs was succeeded in the directorship of the Volapük Academy, 1893, by M. Rosenberger, of St. Petersburg.
From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Clark, Walter John
Besides this, there were a great many newspapers published in Volapük, which treated of all kinds of subjects.
From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Clark, Walter John
Such manufactured lingos as Esperanto, Volapuk, Ido, Novial, Occidental he rejected as unrealistic, improbable.
From Time Magazine Archive
You would begin to talk of scientific languages, of Esperanto, La Langue Bleue, New Latin, Volapuk, and Lord Lytton, of the philosophical language of Archbishop Whateley, Lady Welby's work upon Significs and the like.
From A Modern Utopia by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
There is a phrase current at the present day, belonging to slang, that universal language of the masses, "the Volapuk of the melting-pot."
From Sex--The Unknown Quantity The Spiritual Function of Sex by McIvor-Tyndall, Alexander J. (Alexander James)
Here is, at least, an avian "Volapuk," a universal language understanded by the freemasonry of mutual self-preservation.
From Bog-Myrtle and Peat Tales Chiefly of Galloway Gathered from the Years 1889 to 1895 by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
The universal language of humanity is neither Volapuk, nor Esperanto, nor Ido.
From Second Sight A study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance by Sepharial
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
