Origin
Etienne was a French youth who had a revelation about language while reading George Steiner. This revelation caused his mutant ability to manifest. He turned into a “conceptual mutant,” a living language that burned up his physical form. When his father came to check on him, Etienne “jumped” to him, where the power of his language forced his father to metaphysically burn as well. Etienne jumped from body to body, trying not to overstay his welcome. The less time he stayed in a body, the less damage he did. He did this until he could make it to Krakoa and get help from the omni-lingual Cypher. To fix his fatal flaw, Cypher decided to write him down as a dictionary and turn Etienne into a written language, instead of a spoken one.
Creation
Etienne first appeared in his conceptual form in X-men Unlimited Infinity Comic #42