Other forms: polyglots
A polyglot is somebody who speaks many languages. A gifted polyglot.
How many counts as many is undefined, and most people who claim it mean four or more. A polyglot city is one where many languages are spoken rather than one person speaking them.
1nounpolyglotSomebody who speaks many languages.
“The polyglot at the desk dealt with six nationalities before lunch.”
polyglot is a person.
Greek polyglottos means many-tongued, from polys, many, plus glotta, a tongue.
Proto-Indo-European
*pleh₁- — to fill
Ancient Greek
πολῠ́γλωσσος — speaking many languages, multilingual
grc-att
πολύγλωττος — speaking many languages, multilingual
English, today
polyglot
Built from
Borrowed from grc-att πολύγλωττος (“speaking many languages, multilingual”), alternative form of Ancient Greek πολῠ́γλωσσος (“speaking many languages, multilingual”), from πολῠ́ς (“a lot of, many”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European pleh₁- (“to fill”)) + grc-att γλῶττα, Ancient Greek γλῶσσᾰ (“tongue; language”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European glōgʰs (“tip of corn”)) + -ος. The English word is analysable as poly + glot. Noun sense 1 (“publication in several languages”) is probably derived from Latin polyglottus, from grc-att πολύγλωττος: see above.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA