What’s the plural of “colloquium”?
The plural of colloquium (pronounced koll-o-kwee-um) is colloquia or colloquiums. Colloquium is a singular noun (sing. n.) with two accepted plural forms. That said, any Latin purists should keep to the original plural, colloquia. Otherwise, colloquia or colloquiums are both correct plurals of colloquium (though it’s probably best to stick to one pl. n. form than alternate between the two).
What does “colloquium” mean?
Dictionary.com defines the Latin noun colloquium as a “conference at which scholars or other experts present papers on, analyze, and discuss a specific topic”. Students of philosophy at a graduate level, or any graduate students should be familiar with the term colloquium. Apart from academics or the university setting, the word colloquium is not the most colloquial word choice around, despite the actual meaning of this similarly-rooted adjective …
Fun factoids
Colloquium may not sound familiar, but there are other words in English that are clearly offshoots of the Latin noun, colloquium. The adjective loquacious, though also no longer in popular use, derives from the same Latin roots as colloquium and describes someone as ‘talkative’.
See words like colleague, collect, colloquy are all rooted in the Latin coll-, or com-, meaning “with, together,”. Loquacious, the adjective just mentioned, comes from the Latin loqui, “to speak” (though the verb is suspected to have PIE roots).
Colloquium‘s original Latin is made of coll– (parts coming together) + loqui (to talk). Colloquy, another relatively obsolete word in English meaning dialogue, or conversation; colloquial “colloquial expressions” as in commonly used, or conversational—each of these English words are derivatives of the original Latin form.
Other Latin nouns
| singular | plural |
| colloquium | colloquia or colloquiums |
| referendum | referenda or referendums |
| memorandum | memoranda or memorandums |
| curriculum | curricula or curriculums |
| addendum | addenda or addendums |
| symposium | symposia or symposiums |
Examples of “colloquium” in sentences
1. Guillermo del Toro and Thierry Fremaux on Wednesday resumed their colloquium on the future of cinema with leading filmmakers. Patrick Frater, Variety, 25 May 2022
2. A nine-session scholar-led colloquium to introduce teachers to literary texts by and about minorities. Bruce Fraser.
3. In addition to Cage, cut-up writer William Burroughs, experimental playwright Richard Foreman and underground filmmaker Jack Smith all attended the colloquium. Los Angeles Times, 11 Nov. 2021
4. He was permitted to return to CWRU in 2009 for a colloquium. Karen Farkas, cleveland.com, 26 Feb. 2018
5. The citizen’s forum is organizing colloquium on the seven critical areas.
Examples of colloquia/colloquiums used in application
1. And his popular works, the Adagia, and the Colloquia (1524), had established themselves as standard books in the more easy going age,
2. These have included regular work-in-progress seminars, weekly post-graduate seminars, and over twenty colloquia and symposia.
3. In addition to meals (see below) there are musical evenings, wine tastings, college seminars and a student Colloquia series.
4. The Letters of Cicero are thoroughly natural – colloquia absentium amicorum, to use his own phrase.
5. For the same purpose his Colloquia may be consulted.
Synonyms of colloquium
- seminar
- symposium
- conference
- lecture
- panel
Origin of the word colloquium
From etymology online on colloquium (n.):
1580s, “c. 1600, “conversation, dialogue” (a sense now obsolete), from Latin colloquium “conference, conversation,” literally “a speaking together”.
What’s the difference between they’re, their, and there?
Sources
- Definition of colloquium.
- Sentences using colloquium.
- Origin of colloquium.
