Interlocutor

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An interlocutor (etymologically a 'between [inter] speaker [locutor]) is a participant in a conversation, 'one who shares in a dialogue'. It is pronounced with the stress on the third syllable, with a secondary stress on the first; the '-o-' is the short '-o-' of 'got' and 'lock': 'in-ter-LOCK-you-ter', IPA: /ˌɪn tər ˈlɒk jʊ tər/.

  • A homograph interlocutor is a technical term in Scots law, for which OED (2020) lists no example after 1804. It gives the following definition: "A judgement or order of a court or of the Lords Ordinary, signed by the pronouncing or presiding judge. 'Interlocutors, correctly speaking, are judgments or judicial orders pronounced in the course of a suit, but which do not finally determine the cause. The term, however, in Scotch practice, is applied indiscriminately to the judgments or orders of the Court, or of the Lords Ordinary, whether they exhaust the question at issue or not' (Bell Dict. Law Scotl. 1861)". In some legal systems, interlocutory is applied to provisional or temporary judgements made in the course of a case which are not final decisions.