vā́c f. (fr. √ vac) speech, voice, talk, language (also of animals), sound (also of inanimate objects as of the stones used for pressing, of a drum &c.), [RV.] &c. &c. (vācam-√ ṛ, īr, or iṣ, to raise the voice, utter a sound, cry, call)
a word, saying, phrase, sentence, statement, asseveration, [Mn.]; [MBh.] &c. (vācaṃ-√ vad, to speak words; vācaṃ vyā-√ hṛ, to utter words; vācaṃ-√ dā with dat., to address words to; vācā satyaṃ-√ kṛ, to promise verbally in marriage, plight troth)
Speech personified (in various manners or forms, e.g. as Vāc Āmbhṛṇī in [RV. x, 125]; as the voice of the middle sphere in [Naigh.] & [Nir.]; in the Veda she is also represented as created by Prajā-pati and married to him; in other places she is called the mother of the Vedas and wife of Indra; in [VP.] she is the daughter of Dakṣa and wife of Kaśyapa; but most frequently she is identified with Bhāratī or Sarasvatī, the goddess of speech; vācaḥ sāma and vāco vratam N. of Sāmans, [ĀrṣBr.]; vācaḥ stomaḥ, a partic. Ekāha, [ŚrS.])
mfn. to be spoken or said or told or announced or communicated or stated or named or predicated or enumerated or spoken of [Up.]; [Mn.]; [MBh.] &c. (n. impers. it is to be spoken or said &c.)
to be addressed or spoken to about anything (acc. or nom. with iti), [Mn.]; [Hariv.]; [Kāv.] &c.
to be directed that (with yathā), [MBh.]
to be told about (= still untold), [KātyŚr.]
to be expressed or designated or meant expressly by (gen. or comp.), [ChUp.]; [Śaṃk.]; [Sāh.] &c.
to be spoken against, blamable, censurable by (gen. or instr.), [Mn.]; [MBh.]; [Kāv.] &c.
used as a substantive, [Vop.]
(vācyá), belonging to the voice &c., [VS.]
vācyá m. metron. of the Ṛṣi Prajā-pati, [RV.]
n. what may be said against any one or anything, blame, censure, reproach, fault (vācyaṃ-√ gam, to undergo blame), [MBh.]; [Kāv.]
that of which anything is predicated, a substantive, [Vop.]
a predicate, [W.]
the voice of a verb (e.g. kartari-v°, the active voice; karmaṇi-v°, the passive voice), [ib.]
mfn. verbal, effected or caused by words, consisting in words, communicated by speech (with abhinaya m. a declamatory speech; with vināśa m. threatened destruction; pāruṣye daṇḍa-vācike, the two violences i.e. blows and words, or assault and slander), [Mn.]; [MBh.] &c.
m. a short expression for vāg-āśīr-datta, [Pāṇ. v, 3, 84], Vārtt. 3, [Pat.]
n. a verbal commission or message, [Naiṣ.]; [Śiś.]; [Rājat.]
vācás—páti (vācás-), m. ‘lord of voice or speech’, N. of a divine being (presiding over human life which lasts as long as there is voice in the body; applied to Soma, Viśva-karman, Prajā-pati, Brahmā &c., but esp. to Bṛhas-pati, who is lord of eloquence, preceptor of the gods, and regent of the planet Jupiter), [RV.]; [AV.] &c.
a master of speech, orator, [BhP.]
N. of a Ṛṣi, a lexicographer, a philosopher &c., [Sarvad.]; [Uṇ., Sch.] &c.