Glossolalia

The story of the word

Paul gives a whole chapter of 1 Corinthians to the practice and is cool about it, ranking intelligible prophecy above tongues in a public meeting. The English noun was assembled much later from the New Testament phrase γλώσσαις λαλεῖν, to speak with tongues, and became standard once Pentecostalism spread the practice after 1900. Linguists who have recorded it report that the sound patterns follow the speaker's own language rather than any foreign one.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English

First recorded

19th century