Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2023 January 8

= January 8 =

Which languages have a commonly used word for "the person who is being spoken to"?
English has "addressee", but I do not consider this a word in common use. Nor does it completely encompass both "addressee" (usually for a written message) and "listener" (usually for a spoken message) together. 142.127.187.55 (talk) 14:17, 8 January 2023 (UTC)
 * You. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 14:58, 8 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Collins states that "addressee" has been in use since the 1760s. While it's restricted to written communication in American English, it includes a wider meaning in British English of a person being spoken to. Cambridge agrees with the definitions. Bazza (talk) 15:19, 8 January 2023 (UTC)
 * German: der Angesprochene, which is a noun of angesprochen. 91.54.32.105 (talk) 16:24, 8 January 2023 (UTC)
 * That works in Dutch too: de aangesprokene. It isn't a very common word, but it's regularly formed as the nominalised past participle of German ansprechen or Dutch aanspreken, a transitive verb for "to begin speaking to somebody", so everybody should understand the word. PiusImpavidus (talk) 17:21, 8 January 2023 (UTC)
 * . --Lambiam 12:35, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
 * In the context of someone speaking, the term addressee implies to me that those spoken to are addressed in the second person. If one of a group of people asks, "So what are we gonna do now?", there is no "addressee" proper. --Lambiam 00:37, 9 January 2023 (UTC)


 * "Audience" or "target audience" works some of the time, particularly when you're talking to more than one person. HiLo48 (talk) 01:36, 9 January 2023 (UTC)


 * "Hearer" and "listener" may also work. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 51.194.245.235 (talk) 02:08, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
 * English also has interlocutor. -- Jayron 32 11:46, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Ooh, how annoying! I just came across dialogue in a novel where a lawyer spoke of someone's "interlocutor", and realized the word was an answer to this question, but then I couldn't remember where the question had been asked.  And now that I've found it again, it's already been answered.  Why'd you do that to me, Jayron? --142.112.220.65 (talk) 03:09, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
 * I know someone who regularly uses the word auditor in this sense, which is correct but a bit annoying. Shantavira|feed me 15:08, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Interlocutor (linguistics) offers three English synonyms ("conversation partner, hearer, or addressee") and links to articles in Arabic المحاور (اللغويات), French interlocuteur and Portuguese interlocutor.70.67.193.176 (talk) 15:39, 9 January 2023 (UTC)