Etymology

diglossia

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Today it means: The coexistence in a given population of two closely related native languages or dialects, one of which is regarded as more prestigious than the other; the similar coexistence of two unrelated languages. Full definition →

First used 1959Latin diglōssia ← French diglossie ← Ancient Greek δίγλωσσος
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromδίγλωσσος“bilingual”
  2. French · derived fromdiglossie
  3. Latin · borrowed fromdiglōssia
  4. English todaydiglossia

From Latin diglōssia. In linguistics introduced 1959 by Charles A. Ferguson, based on French diglossie, from Ancient Greek δίγλωσσος (díglōssos, “bilingual”) + -ία (-ía). Equivalent to di- + -glossia.

First known use, by meaning

  • from 1959 The coexistence in a given population of two closely related native languages or dialects, one of which is regarded as more prestigious than the other; the similar coexistence of two unrelated languages.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.