Dialogue

Term: Dialogue
Method: Etymology

The standard etymology for dialogue is "to speak." The term is traced back through the French (dialoguer) to the Latin (dialogus) to the Greek (dia+legein) thus "by the means of speaking." But so far the earliest reference to the term's etymology I have found is Webster's first dictionary, a notoriously scurrilous source. Indeed, why have such a close synonym to the Greek "dialect" (by means of speaking)? I propose an alternate based on the Greek again: dyo+logos. This translates more accurately to the common use of dialogue: two thoughts or two words or two speakings. Indeed, given Webster's religious bent, he may have wished us to avoid getting too close to an heretical interpretation of John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Given that John was heavily influenced by the Greeks, whose idea of logos is complicated and encompasses both logic and order on the philosophical end and the linking of God to humans (a dyo-logos of sorts) on the theological end. Given this new etymology, the "word" is in fact a "dialogue" with not one but two thoughts/words/logics/speakers. Thus Dialogue: Two words in conversation.