From Latin 'inter-' (between) + 'loqui' (to speak) — originally one who interrupts, now any dialogue participant.
A person who takes part in a dialogue or conversation. A person who questions or interrogates someone in a formal discussion.
From Latin 'interlocūtor' (one who speaks between, an interrupter in dialogue), from 'interlocūtus,' past participle of 'interloquī' (to speak between, to interrupt, to interject), from 'inter-' (between, among) and 'loquī' (to speak, to talk). The PIE root behind 'loquī' is *tolkʷ- (to speak), though some scholars reconstruct it as *tlokʷ- with metathesis in Latin. The word initially carried the sense of interruption — an interlocutor was
In American minstrel shows of the nineteenth century, the 'interlocutor' was the central figure — a straight man seated in the middle of the semicircle of performers, who directed the conversation and served as the butt of jokes from the end men ('Mr. Tambo' and 'Mr. Bones'). This peculiar usage — which applied a formal Latin word to a deeply problematic entertainment tradition — gave 'interlocutor' a specifically American theatrical meaning that persisted well into the twentieth century.