Etymograph

English

eloquent

Eloquent comes from Latin eloquens ‘speaking, having the faculty of speech, eloquent’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *telkʷ- ‘to talk’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*telkʷ-‘to talk’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*tlokʷ-reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tlokʷōr‘to speak’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEloquor‘to speak’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEeloquor‘to speak out’
  6. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEeloquens‘speaking, having the faculty of speech, eloquent’present participle of eloquor
  7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400eloquent
  8. Englishearliest quotation 2016same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*telkʷ-‘to talk’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*tlokʷ-reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tlokʷōr‘to speak’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEloquor‘to speak’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEeloquor‘to speak out’
  6. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEeloquens‘speaking, having the faculty of speech, eloquent’present participle of eloquor
  7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400eloquent
  8. Englishearliest quotation 2016same form

Earliest quotation: 2016, Caroline Davies, Been anywhere nice this year? Brain surgery where patients a: “Lydiard was diagnosed shortly after new year following speech…”

Linked words

through Latin loquor ‘to speak’

colloquial, interlocutor, colloquium, soliloquy, loquacious, 19 more

Today it means

adj Fluently persuasive and articulate.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *telkʷ- / eloquent

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