glossolalia

/ˌɡlɒsəˈleɪliə/

Etymology

From glosso- + -lalia, from Ancient Greek γλῶσσᾰ (glôssă, “tongue; language”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *glōgʰs) + λᾰλῐᾱ́ (lălĭā́, “talking; form of speech, dialect”) (from λᾰ́λος (lắlos, “talkative”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns)).

Why this word is great

GLOSSOLALIA — [Noun] The act of speaking in an unknown or seemingly meaningless language, often during religious ecstasy or trance. From Ancient Greek γλῶσσα (glôssa, "tongue, language") + λαλιά (laliá, "talk, chatter"). Unlike "xenoglossy" (which implies fluency in an unlearned but real language) or "babbling" (which suggests idle, unstructured noise), glossolalia is a deliberate surrender to the ineffable. It is the Pentecostal’s fervent syllables tumbling like coins from a purse, the mystic’s whispered incantations dissolving into the candlelit air, the child’s private lexicon murmured to an invisible friend—a language without grammar, yet heavy with the weight of something just beyond comprehension.

noun

Speaking a language one does not know, or speaking elaborate but apparently meaningless speech, while in a trance-like state (or, supposedly, under the influence of a deity or spirits); speaking in tongues.“[Adolf Bernhard Christoph] Hilgenfeld, indeed, is mistaken in explaining the unintelligibility of the γλω̑σσαι, only by the transcendent nature of what they expressed to the merely human consciousness; but he observes with great truth, that that which is common to prophecy and to glossolalia consisted in the exaltation of the consciousness above the merely human sphere, but that which is distinct ”
Synonym of xenoglossy (“knowledge of a language one has never learned”).“As he indicated in the subtitle of his study, [Olivier] Flournoy regarded [Hélène] Smith's Martian as a kind of "glossolalia." In this category, he also included her "Hindu," "Ultra-Martian," and the other extraterrestrial tongues that she would later speak.”