eloquent

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English eloquent,^[2] borrowed from Old French eloquent,^{[3][4][5][2][6]} from Latin ēloquēns (“speaking out; eloquent”), the present participle of ēloquor (“to speak out”),^{[3][4][5][7][8]} formed from ē- (“out”), a form of ex- before l, and loquor (“to speak”).^[4][5][9] Etymonline traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *tolkʷ- (“to speak”).^[5] The Middle English Dictionary and the OED take the word partly or wholly from Latin, and Merriam-Webster from Middle French.^[2][8][10] In Anglo-Norman the adjective is recorded from 1155, for someone well-spoken, able to talk fluently or persuasively.^[11] It is related to eloquence, elocution and loquacious.^[7][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person, able to speak fluently, forcefully and fittingly: 1393, in Gower's Confessio Amantis ("Of wordes he was eloquent"),^[8][2][4] which also has the first use of speech or style.^[8] The noun eloquence is older, from 1369 in Barnhart,^[4] and eloquency is recorded from the mid-14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word kept its first meaning, applied both to speakers and to their words or style.^[8][2] The Middle English Dictionary also records it for literary or poetic style and, of a person, for "talkative".^[2] Shakespeare used it in a transferred or figurative way, in Henry V,^[8] and in 1599 it was used humorously of something that makes a person eloquent, a sense that did not last.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as having the power of oratory, of fluent and elegant speech, quoting "the eloquent orator" of Isaiah.^[13] From 1870, in Rossetti, it also means vividly expressive, as in eloquent of, clearly showing a feeling or quality.^[8][14][15]

Timeline

• 1393 – of persons, fluent and forcible in speech; also of utterances or style, in Gower.^[8][2][4]
• 1599 – humorously, inspiring eloquence (obsolete).^[8]
• before 1616 – in transferred and figurative use, in Shakespeare.^[8]
• 1870 – vividly expressive of something.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Speaking or writing with fluency, force and persuasion: an eloquent defender of the poor.^[15][10][8]
2. Of speech or writing, fluent, moving and well expressed: an eloquent plea.^[15][10][8]
3. Clearly or vividly showing a feeling or meaning; often eloquent of: an eloquent silence.^[15][10][14]

Word family

• eloquently
• eloquentness
• ineloquent
• uneloquent

Related words

• colloquial
• colloquium
• colloquy
• elocution
• eloquence
• grandiloquent
• interlocutor
• interlocution
• locution
• loquacious
• magniloquent
• ventriloquist

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins