Etymograph

English

monologue

Monologue comes from Middle French monologue ‘soliloquy’, from Ancient Greek λόγος ‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech,…’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- ‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning…’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leǵ-1‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to speak by carefully selecting one's words’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lóǵos1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*lógos1reconstructed
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEλόγος1lógos‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech, story, debate, utterance, argument’
  5. Byzantine Greekc. 600–1453μονόλογος1monólogos
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600monologue1‘soliloquy’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1989monologue1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English monologue
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1989, Oliver Sacks: “Powerful parents, in her formulation, feeling themselves autonomous and…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leǵ-Wiktionary, English monologue‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to speak by carefully selecting one's words’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lóǵosWiktionary, English monologuereconstructed
  3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*lógosWiktionary, English monologuereconstructed
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEλόγοςWiktionary, English monologuelógos‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech, story, debate, utterance, argument’
  5. Byzantine Greekc. 600–1453μονόλογοςWiktionary, English monologuemonólogos
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600monologueWiktionary, English monologue‘soliloquy’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1989monologueWiktionary, English monologue. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1989, Oliver Sacks: “Powerful parents, in her formulation, feeling themselves autonomous and…”

Equivalent to mono- + -logue

Proto-Indo-European *men-

Proto-Hellenic *mónwos

Ancient Greek μόνος ‘alone, only, sole, single’

English mono-

first attested First attested in c. 1550 (as stated in Wiktionary’s etymology)

The story

First attested in c. 1550.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- ‘to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning…’

election, collection, technology, select, elite, eligible, lesson, collect, elect, elegant, coil, legion, negligence, negligible, negligent, catalogue, leach, diligent, lexical, cull, astrology, lexicon, dialectic, alexia, epilogue, lignite, lexis, lignin, legation, gynecologist, cosmology, ineligibility, dialogic, 149 more

through Proto-Hellenic *lógos

archaeological, pathological, astrological, etymology, pathophysiology, homologous, psychopathology, neurophysiology, histopathology, bacteriological, 101 more

through Ancient Greek λόγος ‘that which is said: word, sentence, speech,…’

logic, apology, trilogy, analogy, sociology, physiology, terminology, logos, pathology, logistic, archaeologist, pathologist, eulogy, prologue, epistemology, entomology, etiology, bacteriology, apologia, syllogism, bacteriologist, 110 more

Today it means

noun A long speech by one person in a play; sometimes a soliloquy; other times spoken to other characters.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “monologue”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- / monologue

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