eloquence

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English eloquence,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French eloquence,^[4][2][5][6] modern French éloquence,^[7][5][8] from Latin ēloquentia,^[4][7][6] from ēloquēns (“eloquent”),^[4][8] the present participle of ēloquor (“to speak out”),^[4][9][10] from ex (“out”) and loquor (“to speak”),^[4][6] from Proto-Indo-European *tolkw- (“to speak”).^[4] The Old French word is recorded from the 12th century, and the Anglo-Norman one from the second quarter of that century.^[4][11] English had the same sense earlier in eloquency, from the mid-14th century, according to Etymonline.^[4] The adjective eloquent has the same Latin source.^[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The art of expressing thought with fluency, force and aptness: 1382, in the prologue to 1 Corinthians in the early Wycliffite Bible.^[7] Etymonline says the late 14th century,^[4] Dictionary.com 1350–1400,^[12] and the Middle English Dictionary gives a passage on rhetoric in Gower from before 1393.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Middle English used the word for the art of rhetoric and for literary style as well as for persuasive speech, and Chaucer and Gower use it fourteen times between them.^[2][13] It could also mean speech in general, a sense recorded from about 1400, in the Romaunt of the Rose, to 1658.^[7][5] By about 1430, in Lydgate, it was also the quality of a speaker or style.^[7] From 1593, in Hooker, it was also used figuratively.^[7] The plural, for persuasive devices or speeches, is now archaic.^[7][2][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the power of speaking with fluency and elegance; oratory", and also as elegant language itself, quoting Coriolanus for "action is eloquence".^[14] The Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, calls it the highest power of speech for producing a desired effect, especially on the feelings or the will.^[4] The Boke of Saint Albans (1486) lists an eloquence as a company of lawyers, a term the OED calls merely alleged.^[7]

Timeline

• 1382 – the art of expressing thought fluently and persuasively.^[7]
• c. 1400 – speech in general (obsolete by 1658).^[7]
• c. 1430 – the quality of being eloquent, in speakers or style.^[7]
• 1486 – a company of lawyers (an alleged term).^[7]
• before 1533 – plural use (now archaic).^[7]
• 1593 – figurative use.^[7]
• 1623 – the art of rhetoric.^[7][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fluent, forceful and apt use of language to persuade or move: Her eloquence won over the jury.^{[15][3][5][7]}
2. Language or discourse of this kind: an hour of ringing eloquence from the pulpit.^[15][3][14]
3. The quality of being moving or persuasive: the quiet eloquence of the photograph.^[15][7]
4. The art of rhetoric.^[5][7]
5. (obsolete, 1400–1658) Speech in general.^[7][5]

Related words

• eloquent
• loquacious
• elocution

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins