Etymo

polyglot

Someone who knows several languages.

Played on · Day 21 · word 1 of 5

Many tongues.

How polyglot reached English

oldest first

Greek

  • poly-‘many’
  • glōtta‘tongue / language’

combined

  1. English

    polyglot

    ‘Someone who knows several languages.’

The story of polyglot

Polyglot reflects Greek forms built from many and tongue or language. The bodily metaphor is familiar in English too: someone can speak in another tongue without growing another physical one.

This view explains the components. They are pieces of one construction, not consecutive borrowing stages.

Source

Merriam-Webster · polyglot

Formation of the word.

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