ver|nac´u|lar|ly

ver|nac|u|lar «vuhr NAK yuh luhr», noun, adjective.

–n.

1. a native language; language used by the people of a certain country or place: »

a sixteenth century Saxon of peasant and mining stock, handling a vernacular which has at no period been remarkable for refinement (C. V. Wedgewood). Turns of speech that showed they had been that instant translated from the vernacular (Rudyard Kipling).

2. a) everyday language; informal speech. b) a vernacular word or idiom.

3. Figurative. the language of a particular profession, trade, or other group: »

There are many strange words in the vernacular of lawyers.

4. the common name of a plant or animal, not its scientific name, such as black-eyed Susan for Rudbeckia serotina.

–adj.

1. used by the people of a certain country or district; native: »

English is our vernacular tongue.

2. of or in the native language, rather than a literary or learned language.

3. of, having to do with, or forming part of the native language.

4. (of arts or features of these) native or peculiar to a certain country or locality: »

the vernacular style of architecture.

5. of or designating the common informal name given to a plant or animal.

6. Obsolete. (of a disease) endemic.

╂[< Latin vernāculus domestic, native (< verna home-born slave) + English -ar]

–ver|nac´u|lar|ly, adverb.