voiceless

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ-der. Proto-Indo-European *wṓkʷs Proto-Italic *wōks Latin vōcem Anglo-Norman voizbor. Middle English voys English voice Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der. Proto-Germanic *leusaną Proto-Germanic *lausaz Proto-Germanic *-lausaz Proto-West Germanic *-laus Old English -lēas Middle English -les English -less English voiceless From voice + -less.

1. Lacking a voice, without vocal sound.

   “How people, with any pretence to decency or cleanliness, can, for a day, sit voiceless and patient and see these brutes destroy and befilth everything, public and private, is difficult to believe.”

   “A voiceless song in an ageless light / Sings at the coming dawn / Birds in flight are calling there / Where the heart moves the stones / It's there that my heart is calling / All for the love of you.”

2. Without a vote; having no input into a decision.

   “I've come to see she is a voiceless person in her world, and so I try to remember to stop and give her my full-faced attention when I see her.”

   “I feel like hip-hop / Used to be a voice for the voiceless, you know? / And now it's become, at least in the mainstream, a symbol of / misogyny, gay panic, fiscal irresponsibility, you know? / So I figure / if you can't beat 'em / join 'em”

3. Spoken without vibration of the vocal cords; unvoiced, surd, breathed. Examples: [t], [s], [f], [m̥], [u̥].