If bilingual means you know two languages, and trilingual means you know three, what would be the proper term for knowing four, five or even six languages?
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2Now, for the term in the opposite direction, that's a classical joke: What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks one language? American.– hlovdalAug 26, 2014 at 17:43
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1I would answer "polylingual" or "polyglot" or something else along those lines; but technically, the prefix "poly" tends to start at three, and not at four.– PanzercrisisAug 26, 2014 at 17:51
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4 Answers
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6Once, twice, thrice, many. That's all we use in English. And trilingual isn't used often. Aug 25, 2014 at 13:58
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3And we use quintessence, sextuplets, and Septuagint as well. But they're fossils of the Latin embedded in English words. They're not productive. Aug 25, 2014 at 15:23
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3@JohnLawler And octopuses! Don't forget the octopuses! (Yeah, all right, so it's Greek—the number bit is still the same.) Aug 25, 2014 at 15:31
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7@Angew Definitely not, no. Octopi is by far my least favourite plural of that word. Personally, I quite like octopodes and usually use that, but I’m slowly moving toward octopuses. Aug 25, 2014 at 18:04
A multilingual person, in a broad definition, is one who can communicate in more than one language, be it actively (through speaking, writing, or signing) or passively (through listening, reading, or perceiving). More specifically, the terms bilingual and trilingual are used to describe comparable situations in which two or three languages are involved. A multilingual person is generally referred to as a polyglot. Poly (Greek: πολύς) means "many", glot (Greek: γλώσσα) means "language".
From Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualism#Multilingual_individuals
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1Multilingualism focuses on communication rather than mastering the language with its all aspects. Though, multilingual is used as a synonym of polyglot also.– ermanenAug 25, 2014 at 18:36
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1@ermanen the OP asked about knowing several languages, not mastering them :) Aug 27, 2014 at 8:08
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@Donaudampfschifffreizeitfahrt: I know. I'm giving extra information and mentioning the differences.– ermanenAug 27, 2014 at 12:57
Able to speak four languages.
answered Aug 25, 2014 at 13:37
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6The question makes it sound like he needs the equivalent of "trilingual" for 4, 5 and 6. Aug 25, 2014 at 14:42
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If you know more than 3 languages, you are supertrilingual.
(Which, of course, you can shorten to just being "super" :)
answered Aug 25, 2014 at 13:41
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9You need another closing parenthesis to close the opening one after the smiley. (:– NeekuAug 25, 2014 at 13:52
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10@Neeku: I actually like that the paren is expressing two concepts at once (it's bisemic :)– Dan BronAug 25, 2014 at 14:03
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2Haha, nice logic @Dan. Had never thought of it that way. They usually bug me, so I make nested brackets/parentheses! xD– NeekuAug 25, 2014 at 14:06
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@KyleMit Awesome. I hadn't seen this one. (: One option is using RTL emoticons just like mine. There won't be a mismatch then. xD– NeekuAug 25, 2014 at 16:12