bilinguis

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin bilinguis (“double-tongued”).

Adjective

bilinguis (not comparable)

1. Double-tongued, deceiving.
2. (law, historical) A jury made up partly of natives and partly of foreigners.

Latin

Alternative forms

• bilinguus

Etymology

Parasynthetic compound formed of bis (“twice, in two ways”) +‎ lingua (“tongue”) +‎ -is.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /biˈlin.ɡʷis/, [bɪˈlʲɪŋɡʷɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /biˈlin.ɡwis/, [biˈliŋɡwis]

Adjective

bilinguis (neuter bilingue); third-declension two-termination adjective

1. Double-tongued, two-tongued; speaking two languages; having two tongues.
2. Hypocritical, deceitful, false, treacherous.
3. (of a story or tale) Having a double meaning; allegorical.

Declension

Third-declension two-termination adjective.

	singular			plural
	masc./fem.	neuter		masc./fem.	neuter
nominative	bilinguis	bilingue		bilinguēs	bilinguia
genitive	bilinguis			bilinguium
dative	bilinguī			bilinguibus
accusative	bilinguem	bilingue		bilinguēs bilinguīs	bilinguia
ablative	bilinguī			bilinguibus
vocative	bilinguis	bilingue		bilinguēs	bilinguia

Descendants

• Asturian: billingüe
• Catalan: bilingüe
• English: bilinguis
• French: bilingue
  • → Norwegian: bilingv
  • → Romanian: bilingv
• Galician: bilingüe
• Hungarian: bilingvis
• Italian: bilingue
• Norman: bilîngue
• Portuguese: bilingue
• Spanish: bilingüe
• ⇒ English: bilingual, bi-lingual (rare)
  • → Japanese: バイリンガル (bairingaru)
  • → Polish: bilingwalny
• ⇒ Georgian: ბილინგვური (bilingvuri)
• ⇒ German: bilingual
• ⇒ Serbo-Croatian: bilingvalan / билингвалан

References

• “bilinguis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “bilinguis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• bilinguis in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• bilinguis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Virgil's Aeneid, by Virgil, Allyn and Bacon: 1904, page 197, 372[1]
• 1728, Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain. [2]