vocal

English vocal comes from Late Middle English vocal, borrowed from Latin vōcālis ("uttering a voice, sounding, speaking"), built from vōx ("a voice, sound, tone") plus the adjectival suffix -ālis. Vōx itself descends from Proto-Italic *wōks and ultimately Proto-Indo-European *wṓkʷs, from the root *wekʷ-.

The word entered English already carrying its Latin sense of "having to do with the voice," and that meaning has stayed remarkably stable ever since.

Vocal is a doublet of vowel and vocalis, both tracing back to the same Latin vōx — so every time you sound out a vowel, you're brushing up against a hidden cousin of vocal.