alloquialadj.
/əˈləʊkwɪəl/, U.S. /əˈloʊkwiəl/ Chiefly literary. Now rare.
Of or relating to the action of addressing others; of the nature of, characterized by, or given to alloquy. Sometimes contrasted with colloquial.The exact sense of quot. 1767 is unclear.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > conversation > addressing or speaking to > [adjective]
vocativec1450
alloquial1767
1767 C. Smart tr. Horace Epodes xi, in tr. Horace Wks. (new ed.) II. 205 There thou the ills of every day, With musick and with wine, allay Th'alloquial charms [L. dulcibus adloquiis] of spleen.
1798 Analyt. Rev. Jan. 34 The beginning of this sentence being alloquial, the expression ‘eat the invited’, has, at first sight, the appearance of a command rather than of information.
1834 Amer. Monthly Mag. Dec. 165 I had no sooner seated myself in the vehicle, than the words ‘Lame, I perceive,’ escaped from the alloquial organs of this gentleman.
1840 T. De Quincey Style in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. July 11/2 There are no such people endured or ever heard of in France as alloquial wits; people who talk to but not with a circle.
1900 N.Y. Times 2 June 360/4 Our excellent and venerated friend Leo XIII, when he has occasion to address his venerable brethren, in his easy alloquial way, on some ‘Topic of the Time’.
1920 Living Age 3 Jan. 12/2 That mentality which for so many centuries has divided this country from Ireland, we English being essentially alloquial or teachers, whereas the Irish, like the French, are colloquial.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1767