interlocutor

A person who takes part in dialogue or conversation: a locutive partner.

Noun

  1. A person who takes part in dialogue or conversation: a locutive partner.
    • Explanations which continually remind one's interlocutor of one's ignorance are a great damper upon the easy flow of talk. - 1894, Calvin Thomas, “The Teacher's Outfit in German”, in The School Review, volume 2, number...
    • In the run-up to his return to the White House next Monday, Mr. Trump has rattled the world, and America’s neighborhood in particular, with a list of objectives – buying Greenland, seizing the Panama Canal, making...

    Synonyms: converser conversant conversationalist partner collocutor

    Coordinate Terms: asker answerer correspondent interviewer interviewee penpal

  2. A man in the middle of the line in a minstrel show who questions the endmen and acts as leader.
    • The "interlocutor" greeted the audience and engaged in comical repartee with the "end men," named Tambo and Bones. - 1991, Maureen Costonis, “Martha Graham's American Document: A Minstrel Show in Modern Dance Dress”, in...
  3. An interlocutory judgement or sentence.

Origin

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin interlocūtor, from the agent noun counterpart (via the suffix -tor) of Latin interloquor (“speak between, issue an interlocutory decree”), from inter- + loquor (“speak”).

Forms

interlocutors interlocutour

Related

elocution interlocution interlocutive interlocutorily interlocutory interlocutress interlocutrice interlocutrix locution locutional locutionary locutory oblocutor

Derived

interlocutorship

Noun Entry 2

  1. A decree of a court.
    • A decree of the English Court of Chancery is not entitled to more respect in Scotland than a decree (interlocutor) of the Scottish Court of Session in England. - 1869, “The Judicial System of Scotland”, in The American...

Origin

From French interlocutoire, from Latin interlocūtōrium.

Forms

interlocutors interlocutour