In order to fully understand the meaning of the term evoke, it is necessary to first discover its etymological origin. Thus, it must be emphasized that it is a word that derives from Latin, exactly from the verb “evocare”, which can be translated as “bring something to memory” and that is the result of the sum of the following lexical components:
-The prefix “ex-”, which means “outwards”.
-The noun “vox”, which is synonymous with “voice”.
-The suffix “-are”, which is used to form verbs.
When a subject evokes, therefore, it remembers . For example: “In our program today we are going to evoke Carlos Gardel, one of the greatest references of tango” , “The singer-songwriter announced that he is going to evoke the Argentine revolutionary in his next concert” , “In my public speeches I always try to evoke my teachers.”
The act of evoking involves remembering some event from the past or a person. Generally, events or individuals are evoked that left a mark on the person who remembers. An old man, to cite one case, can evoke his adolescence when he meets with friends from that time. A woman, in a chat with friends, can evoke the day of her wedding.
Among the synonyms of evoke are from remember to remember through calling, invoking and conjuring. On the contrary, among its antonyms is forgetting.
Evoking also consists of generating a thought or a mental image from an association of ideas : “In my new collection I work with the entire range of blue to evoke the sea,” “With his painting, the artist wanted to evoke the civil war.” through somber images” , “The proclamations of the new president seem to evoke the times of fascism” .
Another use of the term evoke refers to summoning a supernatural entity : a god , a demon , a spirit , etc. Evocation has the purpose of making the entity in question manifest in some sensory way.
To evoke these entities, some type of ritual is carried out. It is assumed that with these rites it is possible to “call” the god, demon or spirit to be present in a physical place, being able to establish communication with it.
In this case, it must be emphasized that the terms invoke and evoke, which are often used interchangeably, can be confused. However, there is some difference between them. Thus, for example, one of the most important is that in the first case the spirit or supernatural being is called with its “approval” while when it is evoked it is called without its consent, against its will.
That is, to invoke is to ask for the help of the spirits as if it were an act of faith in order to achieve a very specific objective and without waiting for them to manifest themselves through some physical act. On the contrary, when it is evoked, these spirits or beings are authoritatively called and it is required that they manifest themselves in some specific way that is visible.