Art & MusicGreek → English
Monologue
/ˈmɒnəlɒɡ/noun
A long speech by one person, in a play, a film, or a conversation nobody else can enter.
The Greek roots
μόνος
mónos
alone, single
λόγος
lógos
speech, word
Literally: “speaking alone”
The story of the word
French built monologue in the seventeenth century on the pattern of dialogue, and English took it over. The pattern rests on a misreading that will not die: the dia- of dialogue is through, not two, so a dialogue can hold three speakers and monologue was never its true opposite. The comedian's opening run is a twentieth-century American use of the word.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French coinage → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
dialoguemonotonemonopolyeulogy
In a sentence
The interview stopped being an interview and became a monologue about the 1970s.