Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun linguistics An invented form of dialect, language, or speech used by children, typically twins, and intelligible only to its speakers.

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • Secret speech or language, especially invented by children; psychological condition in which speech is so distorted as to be unintelligible.

    May 16, 2008

  • The ease of their conversation confused him. They spoke in the compressed, comic shorthand of people who'd known each other from childhood. Idioglossia, as shared as any. They picked at a deep-fat-fried onion, chatting without having to explain themselves.

    --Richard Powers, 2007, The Echo Maker, p. 319

    November 7, 2008

  • A fine example here.

    April 15, 2009

  • Fascinating.

    April 17, 2009

  • Indeed it is! Wittgenstein must be spinning in his grave!

    June 28, 2010