interlocutor
noun
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Interlocutor derives from the Latin interloqui, meaning "to speak between" or "to issue an interlocutory decree." (An interlocutory decree is a court judgment that comes in the middle of a case and is not decisive.) Interloqui, in turn, ultimately comes from the words inter-, "between," and loqui, "to speak." Some other words that English borrowed from loqui are loquacious ("talkative"), circumlocution (essentially, "talking around a subject"), ventriloquism ("talking in such a way that one's voice seems to come from someone or something else"), eloquent ("capable of fluent or vivid speech"), and grandiloquence ("extravagant or pompous speech").
Example Sentences
Washington Post, 10 Apr. 2022 Weizenbaum’s therapy bot used simple patterns to find prompts from its human interlocutor, turning them around into pseudo-probing prompts. Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 14 June 2022 Her solitude is alleviated by the appearance of her namesake, Lin Daiyu, who arrives as an interlocutor and performs the functions of companion, protector and occasional heckler. New York Times, 3 Apr. 2022 Despite the film’s ostensible focus on Birkin, Gainsbourg proves more than a simple interlocutor. Erik Morse, Vogue, 17 Mar. 2022 On one of his visits to Los Angeles, he was introduced to Brian Copenhaver, who taught philosophy at U.C.L.A. Berggruen was looking for someone to mentor him in philosophy, and Copenhaver became his teacher and interlocutor. New York Times, 6 Apr. 2022 Each of the paintings has an interlocutor: a sculpture belonging to a series that Rose calls Loops. The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2022 Since reunification, Germany coexisted as both NATO member and sympathetic interlocutor between the West and Russia. Washington Post, 4 Mar. 2022 Angela Merkel, a fluent Russian speaker raised in Germany’s former communist east, was a frequent interlocutor for Putin, pressing him on issues ranging from migration to human rights. Washington Post, 8 Apr. 2022 See More Word History
Latin interloqui to speak between, issue an interlocutory decree, from inter- + loqui to speak
1514, in the meaning defined at sense 1