vox popn.
/ˌvɒks ˈpɒp/, U.S. /ˌvɑks ˈpɑp/ colloquial.
1. The voice of the people; esp. (a) the views or beliefs of the majority; the will of the people, popular opinion; (b) common talk or rumour. Cf. vox populi n.rare before the late 19th cent.; quot. 1735 shows an apparently isolated use as a graphic abbreviation of vox populi.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > expressed belief, opinion > opinion held by group > [noun] > public opinion
common opinionc1390
vox populic1547
public opinion1615
crowda1628
vulgar opiniona1699
vox pop1735
vox pop1953
the mind > language > speech > conversation > [noun] > chatting or chat > gossiping > rumour
speechc1175
rumourc1384
voicea1393
reportc1425
vox populic1547
talk1560
skealtc1575
vox pop1735
reverie1787
underbreath1880
scuttlebutt1901
1735 A. Ramsay Let. 5 Apr. in Wks. (1970) IV. 199 I am daily teaz'd with advices about sending the young man abroad, I am perswaded, my Lord, they are in the right (vox pop.).
1899 Nebraska State Jrnl. 9 Dec. 4/2 A party that professes a great deal of devotion to the people and is always with its ear to the ground to listen to the vox pop.
1916 Kokomo (Indiana) Daily Tribune 12 May 8/2 Once more the people have spoken and the latest message of vox pop affirms and emphasizes the former verdicts that this country is determined to retire Woodrow Wilson.
1989 N.Y. Mag. 29 May 34/1 In private..race seems the only thing people are talking about these days... The radio talk shows, the true vox pop of the eighties, are full of it.
2013 D. Leon Golden Egg xviii. 164 Well, there's a bit of vox pop to tell Paola about, Brunetti reflected.
2. Journalism and (later also) Broadcasting.
a. Originally: (a name for) a person who writes a letter to a newspaper to express an opinion, esp. one represented as being held by the general public. Later: a letter to a newspaper of this type. Now rare.In quot. 1877 as a pseudonymous signature to a letter to a newspaper.
ΚΠ
1877 Scotsman 5 June 6/6 (signature of letter) I am, &c. Vox Pop.
1917 Black Diamond 10 Mar. 191/2 Letters from readers..are usually referred to by the pert paragraphers as the ebullitions of old ‘Vox Pop’.
1925 Washington Post 8 Sept. 7/2 Neither the Vox Pops in the daily journals nor the medics in the medical journals nor the faddists in the fad journals paid attention to the learned, experienced New Yorker.
1940 Alamogordo (New Mexico) News 10 Oct. 3/1 Two vox pops on the old desk, while on wildly divergent subjects, contain enough food for thought to last for awhile.
1955 Charleston (W. Va.) Gaz. 28 Feb. 6/3 For years one Alfred Baker Lewis has been writing vox pops to papers around the country giving me the business.
b. An instance of gauging opinion on a particular issue by asking members of the public for their views. Now usually: spec. a sequence of short informal television or radio interviews conducted in a public place with passers-by; (also) a single interview of this type.Recorded earliest in vox pop poll (see Compounds).
ΚΠ
1938 Eng. Jrnl. 27 603 At the peak of public interest in the settlement of the case, editors of newspapers conduct vox pops on the moral issues in the acquisition of the fortune.
1964 S. Hall & P. Whannel Pop. Arts ix. 257 The short interview and the occasional ‘vox pop’ of the local news and sports programmes on radio.
1968 Listener 8 Feb. 164/2 A BBC camera crew went round Washington collecting vox pops—close-ups of men in the street saying pithily what they think of things.
2008 Observer 16 Mar. (Business & Media section) 12/5 It's [sc. an interactive poll] a giant vox pop for internet users.
2012 Financial Times 13 Aug. 14 After a particularly bloody session on the market, an investor or two would inevitably appear on a television vox pop.
c. As a mass noun: popular opinion as represented by comments made to the media by members of the public; comments of this kind, considered collectively.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > expressed belief, opinion > opinion held by group > [noun] > public opinion
common opinionc1390
vox populic1547
public opinion1615
crowda1628
vulgar opiniona1699
vox pop1735
vox pop1953
1953 N.Y. Times Mag. 12 July 21/1 The San Antonio papers, no lovers of Vox Pop, usually pay little or no attention to letters to the editor, but when The San Antonio News opened its editorial paper to letters on the book-branding issue, the tide was about ten to one against.
1972 D. Hurd Truth Game 59 Follow him close with the mike and get odds and ends of vox pop.
1991 Whole Earth Rev. Summer 72/2 For Vox Pop, go where people are waiting. If it seems appropriate, walk right up with your sentence about what you're doing and attach the first question to it.
2014 D. Kynaston Modernity Brit. II. xiii. 386 A local paper gathered some vox pop.
Compounds
General attributive, as vox pop interview, vox pop poll, etc.
ΚΠ
1916 Chicago Tribune 7 Jan. 6/1 The Tribune would enter the Vox Pop department in competition as containing a more interesting and more intelligent discussion of the issues which the senators tackled.
1936 Racine (Wisconsin) Jrnl. Times 15 July 11/1 Your correspondent has made a vox pop poll of CBS personalities on the question: ‘What would you do if you were a program director?’
1967 Punch 22 Nov. 794/1 Brandish a vox pop microphone in the concrete jungles and the cry..will recur monotonously, interspersed with blank looks.
1973 G. Talbot Ten Seconds from Now iii. 35 ‘Vox pop’ interviews on what the king ought to do.
2014 Radio Times 22 Mar. (South/West ed.) 90/4 Doherty has a weakness for those filler ‘vox-pop’ segments where he asks people on the street their opinion.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2018; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1735