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Monday October 19, 2009

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polyglot [POL-ee-glot]

adjective

1. Containing or made up of several languages; as, a polyglot lexicon.
2. Versed in, or speaking, many languages.

• Justice is what makes a great city like London bustle and thrive, a polyglot metropolis full of minorities and escapees from authoritarian lands -- it isn't the excellent underground or the plays of Shakespeare so much as it is the expectation of justice.
  Garrison Keillor, "A place where right is right", Chicago Tribune, Aug 26, 2009
• More than a quotable motormouth, this is one surprisingly multifaceted cartoon villain: a genial sadist, an oppressively polite interrogator, a hyper-articulate polyglot whose verbal dexterity is his scariest weapon.
  Dennis Lim, "'Inglourious' Actor Tastes the Glory", New York Times, Aug 16, 2009
• It was an oriental polyglot scene down there on the hospital quay in the comparative cool of evening, when the big white hospital ship lay off the bank and crowds of ticketed patients sat under the shelters waiting their turn to embark.
  Maurice Nicoll (1884 - 1953) A British psychiatrist. In Mesopotamia

Origin of the Word

Polyglot, approximately 1645, derives from Greek polyglottos "speaking many languages," literally "many-tongued," from poly- "many" + glotta, "language, tongue."