speech act | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

2323 entries found.

"act of attaching quantity to; act of determining the quantity," 1847, noun of action from quantify. Related: Quantificational.

apologist (n.)

"one who speaks or write in defense of something," especially "a defender of Christianity," 1630s, from French apologiste, from apologie, from Late Latin apologia "a speech in defense" (see apology).

*dnghu-

*dnghū-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "tongue."

It forms all or part of: bilingual; language; languet; lingo; lingua franca; Linguaphone; linguiform; linguine; linguist; linguistics; multilingual; sublingual; tongue; trilingual.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Latin lingua "tongue, speech, language" (from Old Latin dingua); Old Irish tenge, Welsh tafod, Lithuanian liežuvis, Old Church Slavonic jezyku "tongue;" Old English tunge "tongue; speech."

brevity (n.)

"shortness," especially in speech or writing, c. 1500, from Latin brevitatem (nominative brevitas) "shortness" in space or time, from brevis "short" (from PIE root *mregh-u- "short").

abuser (n.)

mid-15c., "one who uses (something) improperly," agent noun from abuse (v.). From c. 1600 as "a ravisher;" 1836 as "one who abuses in speech or words."

localism (n.)

1803, "attachment to a particular locality," from local (adj.) + -ism. Always tending toward "limitation through local attachment, provincialism." Meaning "something (especially a way of speech) characteristic of a particular locality" is from 1823.

personification (n.)

"figure of speech or artistic representation in which something inanimate or abstract takes the form of a person," 1755, noun of action from personify. Sense of "embodiment of a quality in a person" is attested from 1807.

exhaustive (adj.)

"tending to exhaust all parts or phases, thorough," especially of a writing or speech which leaves no part of its subject unexamined, 1789, from exhaust (v.) + -ive. Related: Exhaustively; exhaustiveness.

pharyngeal (adj.)

"pertaining to the pharynx," especially of speech sounds, 1799, with -al (1) + Modern Latin pharyngeus, from pharynx (see pharynx). Alternative pharyngal is attested by 1835, from Modern Latin pharyngem + -al (1).

grandiloquence (n.)

"lofty speaking or expression," 1580s, from Latin grandiloquentia, from grandiloquus "using lofty speech, bombastic," from grandis "big" (see grand (adj.)) + -loquus "speaking," from loqui "to speak" (from PIE root *tolkw- "to speak").

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