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Origin and history of intervocalic

intervocalic(adj.)

"between vowels," 1881, from inter- "between" + Latin vocalis "a vowel" (see vowel) + -ic.

also from 1881

Entries linking to intervocalic

vowel(n.)

mid-14c., vouel, "vowel sound, a vowel letter," c. 1300, from Anglo-French vouel, vowel, variants of Old French voieul (Modern French voyelle), from Latin vocalis, in littera vocalis "vocal letter." This is from vox (genitive vocis) "voice" (from PIE root *wekw- "to speak").

One of the open, continuous sounds uttered in human speech, a tone-sound, as opposed, relatively, to a consonant. In prosody, the central or open element of a syllable. Related: Vowellage; vowellish; vowelly.

Vowel shift in reference to the pronunciation change between Middle and Modern English is attested from 1909. The English record-holder for most consecutive vowels in a word is queueing.

-ic

Middle English -ik, -ick, word-forming element making adjectives, "having to do with, having the nature of, being, made of, caused by, similar to," from French -ique and directly from Latin -icus or from cognate Greek -ikos "in the manner of; pertaining to." From PIE adjective suffix *-(i)ko, which also yielded Slavic -isku, adjectival suffix indicating origin, the source of the -sky (Russian -skii) in many surnames. In chemistry, indicating a higher valence than names in -ous (first in benzoic, 1791).

In Middle English and after often spelled -ick, -ike, -ique. Variant forms in -ick (critick, ethick) were common in early Modern English and survived in English dictionaries into early 19c. This spelling was supported by Johnson but opposed by Webster, who prevailed.

inter-

word-forming element used freely in English, "between, among, during," from Latin inter (prep., adv.) "among, between, betwixt, in the midst of" (also used extensively as a prefix), from PIE *enter "between, among" (source also of Sanskrit antar, Old Persian antar "among, between," Greek entera (plural) "intestines," Old Irish eter, Old Welsh ithr "among, between," Gothic undar, Old English under "under"), a comparative of root *en "in."

A living prefix in English from 15c. and used with Germanic as well as Latinate words. Spelled entre- in French; most words borrowed into English in that form were re-spelled 16c. to conform with Latin except entertain, enterprise. In Latin, spelling shifted to intel- before -l-, hence intelligence, etc.

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