polyglot, a. and n.
(ˈpɒlɪglɒt)
Also -glott.
[ad. Gr. πολύγλωττ-ος many-tongued, speaking many languages, f. πολυ-, poly- + γλῶττα tongue. So F. polyglotte (1639 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
A. adj.
1. Of a person: That speaks or writes many or several languages.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Polyglot, that speaks many Languages, a Linguist. 1854 L'pool Albion Nov., Always remarkable for plain speaking in his mother-tongue, though a polyglot linguist. 1873 Hamerton Intell. Life iii. ix. (1875) 124 That there should be polyglot waiters who can tell us when the train starts in four or five languages. |
2. a. Of or relating to many languages;
esp. of a book or writing: In many or several languages.
| 1673 Ess. Educ. Gentlewom. 11 The Authors of the Polyglot-Bible. 1706 Phillips, Polyglott, that is of many Languages, as, The Polyglott Bible, a Polyglott Dictionary. 1881 Nature XXV. 208/1 A French meteorological balloon sent up..with a polyglot request that it be forwarded by the finder to the address given. |
b. Characterized by the use of a plurality of languages, or of elements derived from a plurality of languages.
| 1952 W. D. Jacobs William Barnes i. 12 Dorset gave Barnes the material by which to judge the polyglot English of our day. 1957 Thought XXXII. 240 In his early polyglot days..he [sc. T. S. Eliot] wrote often with odd patches and tags of French, German—and even Sanskrit—as well as Latin and Greek. 1965 Economist 3 Apr. 44/2 The use in, say, Cyprus of a polyglot (or mixed-manned) force. 1972 W. B. Lockwood Panorama Indo-European Lang. 214 Here some 900,000 of them compete with the Gujaratis for the position of second largest linguistic group in that remarkably polyglot city [sc. Bombay]. |
B. n. 1. a. One who speaks or writes several languages.
| c 1645 Howell Lett. III. viii. (1650) 16 A polyglot or good linguist may be also term'd a usefull learned man, 'specially if vers'd in School-languages. a 1840 [see polymath]. 1842 Mrs. Browning Grk. Chr. Poets (1863) 151 As learned a polyglott as ever had been. 1867 Baker Nile Tribut. i, The interpreter was nearly ignorant of English, although a professed polyglot. |
† b. A bird that imitates the notes of other birds.
| [1706 Phillips, Polyglotta, the American Mock-bird, so call'd because it imitates the Notes of all Birds. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Polyglotta avis..the name of a bird described by Nieremberg.] 1770 G. White Selborne 15 Jan., The [sedge-bird] has a surprising variety of notes resembling the song of several other birds... It is..a delicate polyglot. 1776 Pennant Zool. (ed. 4) I. 322 It [sedge warbler] is a most entertaining polyglot, or mocking bird. |
2. a. A book or writing (
esp. a Bible) in several languages.
| 1666 Pepys Diary 5 Oct., Among others, the Polyglottes and new Bible. 1725 Henley tr. Montfaucon's Antiq. Italy (ed. 2) 9 A Polyglot of the Acts of the Apostles,..in Armenian, Arabic, Coptic, Ethiopic. 1840 [see complutensian]. 1892 C. A. Briggs Bible, Ch. & Reason iv. 96 The great Polyglotts had settled that. |
b. A mixture of several languages.
rare.
| 1715 tr. Pancirollus' Rerum Mem. I. Pref. 6, I wish I had a Polyglot into which I might render it. 1830 Cunningham Brit. Paint. II. 311 His wrath aired itself in a polyglott. 1862 Miss Jewsbury Mem. Lady Morgan II. 457 The style is not so much disfigured by a polyglott of languages. |
C. Comb., as
polyglot-wise adv., in a polyglot manner, or like a polyglot; in several languages.
| 1875 J. Grant One of the 600, vii. 53 We shall have..talked polyglot-wise with fellows of all nations. |
So
polyˈglottal,
polyˈglottic,
ˈpolyglottish (
nonce-wd.),
polyˈglottous adjs. = polyglot A.;
polyˈglottally adv.;
ˈpolyglotted ppl. a., furnished with or speaking several languages;
ˈpolyglotter (
nonce-wd.), a polyglot person;
polyˈglottery = polyglottism;
polyˈglottically adv. = polyglottally
adv.;
ˈpolyglottism, polyglot character, use of or acquaintance with many languages;
ˈpolyglottist = polyglot B. 1;
ˈpolygloˌttize v. trans., to render polyglot;
† ˌpolygloˈttology [see
-logy], a speaking in many languages (
obs.).
| 1837 Fraser's Mag. XVI. 670 Panurge the *Polyglottal. 1892 Athenæum 16 July 90/1 A profuse display of easy polyglottal information. |
| 1839 Fraser's Mag. XIX. 680 Most *polyglot[t]ally rendered in our own pages by Father Prout. |
| 1897 Daily News 30 Jan. 6/3 A *polyglotted giant bows you into a luxurious chair, and there you sit, waiting for your host. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 22 Feb. 2/1 ‘The meat, m'sieu’,—though polyglotted, he is a Frenchman, I believe. |
| 1912 ‘R. Dehan’ Between Two Thieves 616 That white haired *Polyglotter in the shabby togs..is a queer kind of chap. |
| 1915 Singapore Free Press 14 Jan., If its *polyglottery were all that was wrong with it [sc. Austria-Hungary], it still might be possible to jog along in a sort of mutual unintelligibility. 1931 Time & Tide 8 Aug. 943 (heading) Polyglottery [review of W. Gerhardi's Memoirs of a Polyglot]. 1962 Times Lit. Suppl. 14 Sept. 685/3 Rebuses abound, as do polyglottery (classical and modern), Finnegans wakefulness, and enormous catalogues à la Rabelais. |
| 1801 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XII. 583 The author is *polyglottic as the hydra. 1903 Daily Chron. 11 July 5/1 Pope Gregory the Sixteenth..was correcting the proof⁓sheets of a polyglottic book that Wiseman was bringing out. |
| 1910 W. J. Locke Simon vi. 71 Mr. Papadopoulos *polyglottically acknowledged the honour I had conferred upon him. |
| 1878 E. Jenkins Haverholme 206 Screeching their raven-voiced praises in *polyglottish discord. |
| 1882 Century Mag. XXIV. 106 The *polyglotism implies so close a familiarity with many literatures. 1889 Lowell Latest Lit. Ess., Stud. Mod. Lang. (1891) 139, I will not say..with Lord Burleigh that such polyglottism is but ‘to have one meat served in divers dishes’. |
| 1890 Spectator 29 Mar., The great *polyglottist, Mr. Thomas Watts, who probably surpassed the more famous Mezzofanti, gives his testimony to the linguistic importance of the work in a notable letter. |
| 1871 Miss Mulock Fair France i. 37 Plain English (which we found ourselves rapidly forgetting, and becoming *polyglottized). |
| 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 907 At the first Honey had but one name, called in the Hebrew Dabesch; but since that strange and confused *Polyglottology, or speaking with divers tongues it was called of the inhabitants of Arabia, Hel, Han; of the French, Miel; of the English, Honey [etc.]. |
| 1861 Max Müller Sc. Lang. iv. 130 While working as a missionary among the *polyglottous tribes of America. 1885 Greswell in Sat. Rev. 26 Dec. 845 [The temptation to talk of a Kaffir policeman as] a polyglottous individual. |