polyglot (2009-06-03)

Part of Speech: noun

Pronunciation: ['pah-li-glaht]

Definition: A person who speaks two or more languages.

Usage: First and foremost this word refers to someone who is multilingual: "Herschel Swartz is a polyglot who can talk his way out of paying his bills in seven different European languages." It can, however, refer to people in a broader, more indirect sense, "The restaurant had such a polyglot kitchen it was a wonder the dishes that came out of it were edible."

Suggested Usage: Nothing irritates a linguist more than being asked, "And how many languages do you speak?" after admitting that he or she is a linguist. Remember, a linguist is someone who studies language scientifically—possibly speaking only one language; a polyglot is a person who speaks more than one language. Today's word may also be used adjectivally, as a polyglot nation or a polyglot edition of the Bible. The noun referring to the talent is "polyglottism."

Etymology: Today's word is another borrowed from Greek via Latin and French (polyglotte). The original Greek was "polyglottos," made up of poly "many" + glotta "tongue, language" plus a suffix, and hence literally meant "many-tongued" in both senses of the expression. Greek was another of those languages whose word for language originally meant "tongue," like French "langue," Spanish "lengua," and Russian "jazyk." Even we speak of the mother tongue. Greek also used "glossa" to refer to tongues and languages, so our words "gloss" and "glossary" derive from a variant of the same word.