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interloquor

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word interloquor

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
190–159 BC, Terence
Ultimate origin
Latin loquor
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin loquor
Latin interloquor
From the same root
Latin colloquor ← loquor
Latin loquax ← loquor
Latin loquela ← loquor
Latin obloquor ← loquor
Latin proloquor ← loquor

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪnˈtɛr.ɫɔ.kʷɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [inˈtɛr.lo.kʷor][1]

Forms

interloquor (present infinitive interloquī, perfect active interlocūtus sum); third conjugation, deponent[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin inter- (“between”) + loquor (“to speak”).[2][1][3] The simple verb goes back to Proto-Italic *(t)lokʷ-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *tlokʷ- (“to talk”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Terence on.[3] In the Heauton timorumenos one character snaps at another “are you interrupting me like this?”.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its sense is to speak in between, to put in remarks or interrupt: Seneca the Younger uses it in his philosophical works, and Pliny the Younger says that he “spoke in seldom and briefly” at a hearing.[2][3] Apuleius has “read on until I interrupt”,[2] and with a neuter pronoun as object it means to put in a word.[2][6]

In legal Latin it is the term for a judge or magistrate giving an interlocutory decision, in Ulpian and the Digest,[2][7] and an itinerary of Alexander speaks figuratively of brooks “talking in between”.[5] The noun interlocūtiō belongs with it.[1]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of interrupting someone.[2][8]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca the Younger uses it of putting in a remark.[3][8]
  • before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of an interlocutory decree.[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To speak in between, put in remarks, interrupt.[2][7]
  2. (law) To give an interlocutory decree.[2][7]

Word family

  • interlocūtiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Interloquor.” Etymologically, 25 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/interloquor. Accessed 25 Oct. 2026.

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