speak in tongues

English

Etymology

Calque of Ancient Greek ἐλάλουν τε γλώσσαις (eláloun te glṓssais)

Verb

speak in tongues (third-person singular simple present speaks in tongues, present participle speaking in tongues, simple past spoke in tongues, past participle spoken in tongues)

1. To speak in a language unknown to the speaker, especially when in a state of religious ecstasy; glossolalia.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC:
     Acts 19:6:

     And when Paul had laid [his] hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.

   • 1830 August 3, A. Robertson, “ROW HERESY AND GARELOCH MIRACLES”, in The Kaleidoscope; or, Literary and Scientific Mirror‎^[1], volume XI, number 527, Liverpool, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 39, column 3:

     "These letters evince the degree of enthusiasm to which their writers, and others of the same persuasion, had attained, before their pretensions to the gift of tongues. Having adopted, by means of their spiritual instructors, extravagant views of the operation of the Holy Spirit, they were, in a peculiar sense, in the Spirit, and had the mind of Christ ; and, modelling the Scriptures on these topics to their favourite prepossessions, they came to the conclusion that they were enlightened to understand the mind of the Spirit in the Scriptures, as perfectly as the Apostles were inspired to write it! This prepared them for the next stage of delusion, namely, that the same power which enabled the Apostles to speak in tongues, was also in them, and that their thoughts and words were not their own, but the Spirit’s.

Related terms

• speaking in tongues
• tongues-speaker, tongue speaker
• tongues-speaking

Translations

speak in a language unknown to the speaker

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 說方言／说方言 (shuō fāngyán)

• Danish: tale i tunger
• Finnish: puhua kielillä
• French: parler en langues (fr)
• German: in fremden Zungen sprechen, in Sprachen reden, in fremden Sprachen reden, Sprachenrede praktizieren, Zungenrede praktizieren, Zungenreden praktizieren, glossolalieren
• Italian: parlare in lingue
• Japanese: 異言を語る (いげんをかたる, igen o kataru)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tale i tunger, glossolalere

  Nynorsk: tale i tunger, glossolalere

• Portuguese: falar em línguas
• Spanish: hablar en lenguas
• Swedish: tala i tungor

Further reading

• “speak in tongues”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “speak in tongues, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “speak in tongues”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “speak in tongues”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “speak in tongues” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.