Dictionary

locute en · VERB

Etymology

Back-formation from locution. The first sense could also be directly derived from Latin locut-, perfect active participial stem of loquor (“talk, speak”).

Meanings

1. (intransitive, rare, transitive) To speak; to say; to utter.
   • […]and P. Bateson ("Behavioural development and evolutionary processes") pointedly locutes what R. Dawkins ("Replicators and vehicles") only circumlocutes—that he (Dawkins) has wisely changed his language to clarify the fact that the direct action of selection is on phenotypes, not genes. 1983, Mary Jane West-Eberhard, “Review: Current Problems in Sociobiology: An Adaptationist Review”, in Evolution, volume 37, pages 1325–1326:
   • "God's a pervert[…]" He locutes with double rows of gold teeth, in the bland guise of an argument. 2014, J. Robert Lennon, “Five Stories”, in Diagram 14.6, retrieved 01 May 2023:
   • And 'tis strange that Reverend Body shou'd not find out in several Years, that he who cannot Locute will never Prolocute well. 1709, John Oldmixon, The History of Addresses, volume 1, page 240:
2. (intransitive, transitive, with the utterance as object) To utter a meaningful sentence; to perform a locutionary act.
   • By contrast, for Grice, one who for instance speaks ironically makes as if to illocute, rather than making as if to locute. 2020, The Oxford Handbook of Assertion, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 367:
   • The translator locutes propositions, but illocutes nothing at all. 2011, David Braun, “Implicating Questions”, in Mind and Language, volume 26, pages 574–595:

Forms

Relateds

illocute · perlocute