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colloquor

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word colloquor

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*tlokʷ-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin loquor
Latin loquax
Latin proloquor
Latin colloquor

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkɔl.lɔ.kʷɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkɔl.lo.kʷor][1]

Forms

colloquor (present infinitive colloquī, perfect active collocūtus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1] It is also spelled conloquor.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + loquor (“to speak”).[2][1][4] The verb loquor goes back to Proto-Indo-European *tlokʷ- (“to talk”).[5] Cognate with Old Irish ad·tluchedar (“gives thanks”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first examples in the OLD are from Plautus, as in the Persa “when you see me talking with the pimp”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to talk or converse with someone, and transitively to speak to a person or discuss matters, as Nepos' “the things I want to discuss with you”.[2] In Caesar it is to hold talks or negotiate, and as a military term to hold a parley.[2][3]

Church Latin glosses it “converse together, negotiate with”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of talking with someone.[2][7]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of parleys.[2][7]
  • c. 100–24 BC – Nepos of discussing matters.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To talk together, converse; to speak to.[2][3][1]
  2. To discuss; to negotiate; to hold a parley.[2][3][1]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Colloquor.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/colloquor. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·