colloquium

Forms

colloquium n (genitive colloquiī or colloquī); second declension^[1] It is also spelled conloquium.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from colloquor (“to talk with”) with the suffix -ium.^[2][1][3] The verb is com- (“together”) and loquor (“to speak”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *tlokʷe/o- and Proto-Indo-European *tlokʷ- (“to talk”).^[4] Cognate with Old Irish ad·tluchedar (“gives thanks”) and Russian толк (tolk, “meaning”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL and the OLD find it first in the comic poet Turpilius, of private talk: cessō mē in colloquium cōnferre?, “why don't I join their conversation?”.^[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is talk between persons, entering into talk with someone (Sallust), company and conversation as a sign of social life (Cicero misses everyone's colloquium in his solitude), and talk by letter.^[2] It is also a conference or discussion, an interview one asks for (Nepos), and in war a parley with the enemy.^[2][6]

In medieval Latin it named an audience with a ruler, a general assembly of the king's men, a session of the royal court or of a law court, a church synod, a town assembly and the general chapter of the Premonstratensians.^[7] English took it over as colloquium around 1600, at first for a conversation, and earlier as colloquy in the mid-15th century.^[8]

Timeline

• 2nd century BC – Turpilius of a private conversation.^[2][3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of conferences and of talk by letter.^[2][5]
• c. 100–24 BC – Nepos of an interview asked for.^[2][5]
• mid-15th century – English colloquy.^[8]
• c. 1600 – English colloquium, “conversation”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Talk, conversation; social intercourse.^[2][1][6]
2. A conference, discussion; an interview.^[2][1][9]
3. (military) A parley (with an enemy).^[2][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) An audience with a ruler; an assembly of the king's men; a session of a court.^[7]
5. (Medieval Latin) A church council or synod; a town assembly.^[7]

Related words

• loquor
• sermō
• English colloquy

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes sermō, a conversation that arises by chance and has no fixed purpose, from colloquium, a talk agreed on for a purpose, like a conference.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper