| xenoglossy |
| Definition: The ability to speak a language that you have never learned. Note: Some claim that people who speak in tongues are often xenoglossic. |
| Example: No. I don't speak English. Not a single word! |
| Etymology: The word derives from the Greek xenos, foreign + glossa, tongue. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: Its first citation is from 1914: *Xenoglossy is well known not to be unusual in automatic writing; sometimes even the ‘automatist’ speaks or writes languages of which he is completely ignorant. Note: The first citation for the word xenoglossia is from 1978. (A. Teixeira de Mattos tr. Maeterlinck's Unknown Guest iii. 101) |