monologue
Pronunciation
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
- A long speech by one actor in a play or film, especially when alone; a soliloquy.[11][6][5]
- A dramatic piece or sketch for a single performer.[11][6]
- A continuous series of jokes or stories told by one comedian: The host opened the show with a ten-minute monologue.[5][6]
- A long speech by one person that dominates a conversation: He launched into a monologue about his garden.[11][5][2]
- A literary composition in the form of a soliloquy.[5][2]
Verb
Word family
- monologic
- travelogue
- interior monologue
Related words
References
- ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
- ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
- ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
- ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins