Etymology

monolingual

M3O1N1O1L1I1N1G2U1A1L1

Today it means: Knowing or using a single language; written or spoken in a single language. Full definition →

English lingual ← Latin linguāli ← Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.?
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*men-
  2. Proto-Hellenic*mónwos
  3. Ancient Greekμόνος (mónos)
  4. Ancient Greekμονο- (mono-)
  5. Englishmono-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s
  7. Proto-Italic*dn̥ɣwā
  8. Latindingua
  9. Latinlingua
  10. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
  11. Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
  12. Latinlinguāli
  13. Englishlingual
  14. English todaymonolingual

From mono- + lingual.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.