Etymologically
Log in

interloquor

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 25 October 2026 at 01:01. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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