soliloquy

English

WOTD – 25 May 2007

Etymology

1595–1605; From Late Latin sōliloquium in the title of St. Augustine's Soliloquiorum libri duo ("Two Books of Soliloquies"), from sōlus (“only, sole”) + loquor (“I speak”).

Pronunciation

enPR: səlĭlʹəkwē, IPA^(key): /səˈlɪləkwi/
Audio (US) (file)
Audio (AU) (file)
Hyphenation: so‧lil‧o‧quy

Noun

soliloquy (countable and uncountable, plural soliloquies)

(drama) The act of a character speaking to themselves so as to reveal their thoughts to the audience.
Coordinate term: aside
At the end of the second act the main villain gave a soliloquy detailing his plans to attack the protagonist.
- 1901, Edmund Selous, Bird Watching, J.M. Dent & Co, London, Chapter XII: Watching Blackbirds, Nightingales, Sand-martins, etc., page 315:
  Yet if I were to say […] that Hamlet's soliloquy had been much over-rated, it would not be said, on this account, that I was unable to appreciate Shakespeare.
(authorship) A speech or written discourse in this form.
Synonym: monologue
Antonyms: colloquy, dialogue, dialog
- 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XI, page 135:
  The feeling of Singleton's bosom grew heightened in its tone of melancholy, and a more passionate emphasis of thought broke forth in his half-muttered soliloquy:— ¶"How I remember as I look […]
- 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 126:
  Here is a very over-simplified example, this time expressed in the form of a subjective soliloquy rather than a computer simulation.

Usage notes

Primarily used of theater, particularly the works of William Shakespeare, as a term of art, particularly for finely-crafted speeches. An archetype is the “To be, or not to be” soliloquy in Hamlet. In informal speech or discussions of popular culture, the term monologue is used instead. However, the terms are not precisely synonymous; a monologue is held in the presence and directed towards other characters on the stage, whereas a soliloquy does not acknowledge the presence of any other stage characters if present, and is directed to the audience.

Hypernyms

locution
oration

Derived terms

soliloquist
soliloquize

Related terms

solo, solitude
locution – see other terms on same loquor root

Translations

act of a character speaking to himself

Afrikaans: alleenspraak (af)
Bulgarian: монолог (bg) m (monolog)
Catalan: soliloqui m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 獨白／独白 (zh) (dúbái)
Czech: samomluva
Finnish: yksinpuhelu
French: soliloque (fr) m
German: Selbstgespräch (de) n
Greek: μονόλογος (el) m (monólogos)
Hungarian: monológ (hu), magánbeszéd
Icelandic: eintal (is) n, einræða f
Italian: soliloquio (it) m
Japanese: 独り言 (ja) (ひとりごと, hitorigoto), 独白 (ja) (どくはく, dokuhaku), 独話 (どくわ, dokuwa)
Korean: 독백(獨白) (ko) (dokbaek)
Polish: solilokwium (pl) n
Portuguese: solilóquio m
Russian: моноло́г (ru) m (monológ), солило́квий m (solilókvij) (rare)
Spanish: soliloquio (es) m
Swedish: monolog (sv)
Welsh: ymson (cy) m

speech or written discourse in this form

Catalan: soliloqui m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 獨白／独白 (zh) (dúbái)
Finnish: yksinpuhelu
French: soliloque (fr) m, monologue (fr) m
German: Selbstgespräch (de) n, Monolog (de) m
Greek: μονόλογος (el) m (monólogos)
Hungarian: monológ (hu), belső monológ, magánbeszéd
Icelandic: eintal (is) n, einræða f, einræða persónu f
Italian: soliloquio (it) m
Japanese: 独白 (ja) (どくはく, dokuhaku)
Maori: kupu whaiaroaro
Portuguese: solilóquio m
Russian: моноло́г (ru) m (monológ)
Spanish: soliloquio (es) m
Swedish: monolog (sv) c

Verb

soliloquy (third-person singular simple present soliloquies, present participle soliloquying or soliloquing, simple past and past participle soliloquied)

(very rare) To issue a soliloquy.

Synonyms

soliloquize (much more common)