NODE / 0667attestedPresent-Day English

verbal

TRANSLITERATION verbalPRONUNCIATION /ˈvɜːrbəl/

of, relating to, or consisting of words; of a verb; spoken rather than written

DATE: 15th century–today
SENSE: word related adjective
FAMILY: Indo-European / Germanic
CANONICAL KEY: node:1:verbal:attested:sense:word-related-adjective

The word has several live senses; the spoken contrast is not the whole history.

ANCESTRAL EDGES

ROOT OF THIS ROOT

GO DEEPERcontinuationestablished

Middle English · Middle English, 15th century · word related adjective

verbale

of or consisting of words

SOUND: English verbal regularizes the Middle English final vowel while preserving the learned base and suffix.
MEANING: The relational word sense continues while verb-related and spoken-language senses develop alongside it.
CHRONOLOGY: First known use is reported in the fifteenth century.
SCHOLAR: Merriam-Webster Editors
CONFIDENCE: established

Verbal — Definition, Word History, and First Known UsesupportsDefinitions, Word History, and First Known Use

Supplies the English form, wide semantic range, and fifteenth-century horizon.

ORIGINAL ↗

OPEN CANONICAL EDGE 637 ↗

DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES

THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP

No reviewed descendants currently reuse this node. Absence describes the graph, not the entire history of the form.

TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE

EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE

This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.

UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES: 0
REVIEWED EDGES: 0
DEEPEST PATH: 0
MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED: 0

No downstream edge has cleared review for this node. This is a graph-coverage statement, not a claim that the historical form produced nothing.

“Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.

RECORDED EVIDENCE

ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE

SOURCE-REPORTEDlexicographic first useestablished

15th century

Merriam-Webster first-known-use report for verbal

Century-level source report; no underlying fifteenth-century object was directly inspected.

verbal dossier · recorded as verbal

Merriam-WebsterWITNESS RECORD ↗Verbal — Definition, Word History, and First Known Use ↗

EDITORIAL REUSE

WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE

01verbalverbal · established