monologue

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French monologue (“a speech in a play by a single actor”), recorded in French from the early 16th century,^[2][3][4][5] formed with mono- and -logue on the model of dialogue.^[2][6][7] Etymonline, Barnhart and Klein trace it to Byzantine Greek μονόλογος (monólogos, “speaking alone”),^[3][4][8] from Ancient Greek μόνος (mónos, “alone, single”) and the stem of λέγω (légō, “to speak”), as in λόγος (lógos, “speech, word”).^[8][3] Etymonline takes these back to Proto-Indo-European *men- (“small, isolated”) and *leg- (“to collect, gather”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long speech by one actor, or a scene in which only one actor speaks: about 1550, in The Complaynt of Scotland;^[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1549.^[6] Etymonline dates the word to the 1660s and Barnhart to 1668, in Dryden's Of Dramatick Poesie,^[3][4] which the OED cites for the form or style of such speech.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word was first a term of the theatre.^[2][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as a scene in which one character speaks alone, a soliloquy, and quoted Dryden's complaint that Terence used it for an unnatural way of telling a story.^[9] For a while in the early 17th century it could also mean a person who monopolizes conversation (Minsheu, 1625).^[2][10] From 1780 it named a literary composition in the form of a soliloquy.^[2] The general sense, a long, often tedious speech by one person in company, is recorded from 1859;^[2][4] French had developed it in 1811.^[2] The verb, to talk in monologue, appears in Coleridge's letters in 1825.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1550 – a long speech by one actor in a play.^[2][6]
• 1625 – a person who monopolizes conversation (obsolete).^[2][10]
• 1668 – the form or style of such speech, in Dryden.^[2][4]
• 1780 – a literary composition in the form of a soliloquy.^[2]
• 1825 – verb, to talk in monologue.^[2]
• 1859 – a long speech by one person in conversation with others.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long speech by one actor in a play or film, especially when alone; a soliloquy.^[11][6][5]
2. A dramatic piece or sketch for a single performer.^[11][6]
3. A continuous series of jokes or stories told by one comedian: The host opened the show with a ten-minute monologue.^[5][6]
4. A long speech by one person that dominates a conversation: He launched into a monologue about his garden.^[11][5][2]
5. A literary composition in the form of a soliloquy.^[5][2]

Verb

1. To deliver a monologue.^[5][2][6]

Word family

• monologic
• travelogue
• interior monologue

Related words

• dialogue
• monologist
• mono-
• -logue
• logic

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins