In order to fully understand the meaning of the term evoke, it is necessary to proceed to discover its etymological origin first. 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 it is the result of the sum of the following lexical components:
-The prefix “ex-“, which means “out”.
-The noun “vox”, which is synonymous with “voice”.
-The suffix “-are”, which is used to shape verbs.
When a subject evokes, therefore, reminisce. For instance: “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 last or to a person. In general, events or individuals are evoked that left a mark on the one who remembers. An old man, to cite one case, can evoke his adolescence when he meets friends of that time. A woman, in a chat with friends, can evoke her wedding day.
The synonyms for evoke include everything from remembering to recalling, calling, invoking and conjuring. On the contrary, among its antonyms is forgetting.
Evoke also consists of generate a thought or mental image from a 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 dark images”, “The proclamations of the new president seem to evoke the times of fascism”.
Another use of the term evoke refers to summon a supernatural entity: a God, a Devil, a spirit, etc. Evocation is intended to make the entity in question manifest itself in some sensory way.
To evoke these entities, some kind of ritual is carried out. It is assumed that with these rites it’s possible “to call” to the god, demon or spirit so that he is present in a physical place, being able to establish a communication with him.
In this case, it should be emphasized that the terms invoke and evoke can be confused, which are often used interchangeably. 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 their “approval” while when it is evoked it is called without their consent, against their 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 those to manifest themselves through some physical act. On the contrary, when it is evoked, those spirits or beings are authoritatively called and they are required to manifest in some concrete way that is visible.