multilingual

Etymology

It is formed from English multi- + -lingual.^[2][3][4][5] The Shorter Oxford and Etymonline analyse the second part as Latin lingua (“tongue, language”) with the suffix -al,^[6][7] and the OED notes that English formations in -lingual from the early 19th century sometimes had models in Latin compounds in -linguis or in French ones in -lingue.^[2] It compares French multilingue, recorded once as a disparaging noun in 1664 and as an adjective only from 1939.^[2] The prefix is from multus (“much, many”),^[7] and lingua is from dingua in Old Latin, from Proto-Indo-European *dnghu- (“tongue”), the source of tongue.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Involving, written in or speaking several languages: 1838, in Fraser's Magazine.^[2][3][8] Etymonline dates the word to 1832,^[7] and Dictionary.com to 1830–40.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective was first used of things, such as texts written in several languages, and of people who speak more than two.^[2][3] The noun, a person who speaks several languages, followed in the mid 20th century: the OED's first quotation is from 1956, in the Publications of the American Dialect Society,^[2] where the 1989 edition had 1959.^[9] The OED compares it with the earlier noun bilingual.^[2] The derived noun multilingualism is recorded from 1923.^[9]

Timeline

• 1838 – involving or written in several languages; speaking more than two languages.^[2][3]
• 1956 – noun, a person who speaks more than two languages.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Written, spoken or expressed in several languages: a multilingual phrasebook.^{[3][8][10][11][2]}
2. Able to speak or use several languages, often more than two: a multilingual tour guide.^{[3][8][10][11][2]}

Noun

1. A person who can speak several languages; a polyglot.^[3][2][6]

Word family

• multilingualism
• multilingually

Related words

• language
• bilingual
• monolingual
• plurilingual
• lingual
• linguist
• tongue

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins