eloquence
/ˈɛləkwəns/noun
persuasive fluency and elegance in speech or writing
From Latin ex (out) + Latin loqui (to speak).
Lineage
ex
loqui
The story
Picture a Roman speaker pushing words outward toward a crowd: that is the little drama inside Latin ēloqui, “to speak out,” built from ex, “out,” and loqui, “to speak.” The speech-root’s family is wonderfully talkative: loquacious people talk a lot, a soliloquy is speech performed alone, and a colloquy is a conversation—literally speech gathered together. Latin turned the action into ēloquentia, and Old French carried eloquence into English, where it appeared by the late fourteenth century. The word has always hovered between gift and craft; La Bruyère described eloquence as a power that makes us masters of other people’s minds and hearts. Even the old superstition about a child born in a caul promised that the child would possess eloquence—apparently excellent speaking was once thought to arrive with a membrane-shaped lucky charm. Remember the image: eloquence is not merely talking; it is speech stepping out of the mouth and walking into someone else’s mind.
Modern usage
A vulgar sexual euphemism involving oral sex, based on a pun about the tongue and speaking.
- Popularized by
- Urban Dictionary entry
- Heard in
- internet slang
- See
- Urban Dictionary
Words from the same roots
loqui · Latin, ‘to speak’
Derivedeloquent, loquacious, soliloquy, colloquy, circumlocution, ventriloquism