lingua

Unadapted borrowing from Latin lingua (“the tongue”). Doublet of langue and tongue.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɪŋ.ɡwə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

lingua (plural linguae or linguas)

1. (anatomy) Synonym of tongue.
   • 2009, Alex J. Packer, Wise Highs: How to Thrill, Chill, & Get Away from It All Without Alcohol Or Other Drugs, Read How You Want, →ISBN, page 24:

     Let your lingua loiter on its salty, hard surface. When you finally crack the nut, don’t swallow it right away.

   • 2016, E.B. Mendel, If Frogs Could Fly, Sunbridge Books, →ISBN:

     “I believe it’s from the condition he’s acquired,” she answered while moving closer to examine the elongated lingua. “You can put it back in your mouth now.”

2. (entomology) A median process of the labium, at the underside of the mouth in insects, and serving as a tongue.

• lingua franca

• “lingua”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• Gaulin, nilgau

• língua (reintegrationist)

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese lingua, from Latin lingua. Compare Portuguese língua.

• Hyphenation: lin‧gua

lingua f (plural linguas)

1. tongue

   botar a lingua a pacer (idiom)

   to ramble; to be indiscreet

   (literally, “to put the tongue to graze”)

2. language

• “lingua”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2024

From Portuguese língua. Cognate with Kabuverdianu lingua.

lingua

1. tongue
2. language

• IPA^(key): /ˈliŋ.ɡwa/

lingua (plural linguas)

1. tongue
2. language

• (language): linguage

• linguage
• linguista
• linguistica

Inherited from Latin lingua.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlin.ɡwa/

• Audio ("la lingua"):

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -inɡwa
• Hyphenation: lìn‧gua

lingua f (plural lingue)

1. tongue
2. language, tongue
3. strip, tongue (of land)
4. (in the plural) foreign languages
5. the square horn of an anvil
6. (usually in the plural) a type of Italian flatbread

• → Greek: λίγκα (lígka)
• → Maltese: lingwa
• →? Sabir: lingua

• lingua in Collins Italian-English Dictionary
• lingua in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• Langiu, i lunga, langui, languì, nilgau

From Portuguese língua.

lingua

1. tongue
2. language

• lengua

From Latin lingua.

lingua f (Latin spelling, Hebrew spelling לינגוה, plural linguas)

1. tongue
2. (linguistics) language

• lashon

• dingua (pre-Classical)

From older dingua (attested as a rare word in Gaius Marius Victorinus), from Proto-Italic *denɣwā, from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s. The change of d- to l- is variously explained by a borrowing from another Italic language with such a shift and/or by a folk-etymological association with the verb lingō (“to lick”); compare Old Armenian լեզու (lezu) and Lithuanian liežùvis for the latter process. Other cognates include German Zunge and English tongue.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈlin.ɡʷa/, [ˈlʲɪŋɡʷä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈlin.ɡwa/, [ˈliŋɡwä]

lingua f (genitive linguae); first declension

1. (literally) the tongue
   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 1.4:

     Ut lingua lambentem pueros magister [...] invenerit

     That the teacher founded [the wolf] licking the boys by the tongue

   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 11.17.66:

     sub ea minor lingua nulli ova generantium.

     No oviparous species possesses the lesser tongue (the epiglottis) below the uvula.

2. (transferred sense)
   1. (metonymically) a tongue, utterance, language, speech
      • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 11.338:

         […], largus opum et lingua melior, sed frigida bello dextera, […]

         […]: lavish of his wealth, and a better speaker, but with a hand frozen in battle: […]

      1. the tongue or language of a people
         • 45 BCE, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum 1.10:

            […], Latinam linguam non modo non inopem, ut vulgo putarent, sed locupletiorem etiam esse quam Graecam.

            […], the Latin language, so far from having a poor vocabulary, as is commonly supposed, is actually richer than the Greek.

         1. (post-classical) a dialect, idiom or mode of speech
            • c. 35 CE – 100 CE, Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 12.10.34:

              […] illis non verborum modo, sed linguarum etiam inter se differentium copia est.

              they [the Greeks] have not merely abundance of words, but they have also a number of different dialects.

      2. (poetic, of animals) a voice, note, song, bark, etc.
         • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 3.361:

           volucrum linguas et praepetis omina pennae

           the language of birds and the omens of their wings in flight

      3. an utterance, expression
         • c. 35 CE – 100 CE, Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 1.1.35:

           protinus enim potest interpretationem linguae secretioris, quas Graeci γλώσσας vocant

           He can readily learn the explanations or glosses, as the Greeks call them, of the more obscure words by the way

      4. to hold one's tongue (linguam comprimere, linguam tenēre)
         • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 2.601–602:

           saepe illī dīxerat Almō ‘nāta, tenē linguam,’ nec tamen illa tenet.

           Many a time had Almo said to her, ‘‘Daughter, hold your tongue,’’ and yet she did not hold it.
           (The river deity Almo (god) and his daughter, whom Ovid identifies as the Naiad Lara, otherwise known in ancient mythology as Larunda or Dea Tacita. The name of the ever-talkative Lara – a repeated syllable, as in ‘‘la-la’’ – echoes the Greek λαλεῖν, to talk, chat, prattle, speak.)

   2. tongue-shaped things:
      1. Ranunculus lingua (a flowering plant)

         Synonym: lingulāca

         • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 24.170:

           Lingua herba nascitur circa fontes.

           The plant called "tongue" grows around springs.

      2. the oxtongue, bugloss
         • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 17.112:

            […], lingua bubula—herbae id genus est—insuper optegi iubet eamque inligari opertam stramentis: […]

            […], but he says it must be covered with a layer of bugloss—a species of plant—as well, and that this should be tied on with a layer of straw; […]

      3. the houndstongue

         Synonym: cynoglōssos

      4. a tongue of land
         • c. 177 CE, Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 4.17:

           Idae promunturium, cuius lingua in altum proicit.

           High Ida's cape, whose tongue into the deep extends.

      5. a spoonful

         Synonym: lingula

      6. (music) the tongue or reed of a Roman tibiae
         • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 10.84:

           […] homines repertos qui sonum earum addita in transversas harundines aqua foramen inspirantes linguave parva aliqua opposita mora indiscreta redderent similitudine.

           […] there have been found persons who could reproduce the birds' song with an indistinguishable resemblence by putting water into slanted reeds and breathing into the holes or by applying some slight check with the tongue.

      7. (classical mechanics) the short arm of a lever
         • c. 15 BCE, Vitruvius, De architectura 10.8:

           […] lingua sub onus subdita, caput eius unius hominis viribus pressum id onus extollit.

           with the tongue of the lever placed under the weight, one man's strength, bearing down upon the head of it, heaves up the weight.

First-declension noun.

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: limbã
  • Istro-Romanian: limbĕ
  • Megleno-Romanian: limbă
  • Romanian: limbă
• Dalmatian:
  • langa, luanga
• Italo-Romance:
  • Corsican: lingua
  • Italian: lingua
    • → Greek: λίγκα (lígka)
    • → Maltese: lingwa
    • →? Sabir: lingua
    • ⇒ Italian: linguine (see there for further descendants)
  • Neapolitan: lengua, lenga
  • Sicilian: lingua
• North Italian:
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Emilian: längua
    • Ligurian: lengua
    • Lombard: lengua
    • Piedmontese: lenga
    • Romagnol: lèngva
  • Rhaeto-Romance:
    • Friulian: lenghe
    • Ladin: lënga
    • Romansch: lieunga, lengua, glianga, laungia, leua
  • Istriot: lèngua, lengua, laèngua
  • Venetan: łéngua, łéngoa, léngoa, lengoa, léngua
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: lengoua
  • Old French: langue, lingue, lengue
    • Middle French: langue
      • French: langue (see there for further descendants)
    • Champenois: laingue
    • Franc-Comtois: landye
    • Norman: laungue
    • Picard: lingue
    • Poitevin-Saintongeais: lengue
    • Walloon: linwe
• Occitano-Romance:
  • Old Catalan: lengua
    • Catalan: llengua
  • Old Occitan: lengua, lenga
    • Occitan: lenga

      Gascon: lengua

      Limousin: linga

      Provençal: lengo, lenguo

• Ibero-Romance:
  • Aragonese: luenga (with metathesis of /w/)
  • Old Leonese:
    • Asturian: llingua, llengua, lluengua (Eastern Asturias), ḷḷingua, ḷḷuinga (Ayer), chingua (Valdés), chengua (Valdés), yuönga (Cabrales)
    • Extremaduran: luenga
    • Leonese: llingua
    • Mirandese: lhéngua
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: lingua, lengua, lingoa, lengoa
    • Fala: lengua
    • Galician: lingua
    • Portuguese: língua (see there for further descendants)
  • Old Spanish: lengua
    • Ladino: לינגוה / lengua, lingua
    • Spanish: lengua
      • Chavacano: lengua
      • Papiamentu: lenga
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: limba (Logudorese), lingua (Campidanese)
• Borrowings:
  • → English: lingua
  • → Esperanto: lingvo

• “lingua”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lingua”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lingua in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• lingua in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to have a ready tongue: lingua promptum esse
    
  • volubility: linguae solutio
    
  • the Greek language is a richer one than the Latin: lingua graeca latinā locupletior (copiosior, uberior) est
    
  • intercourse of speech: commercium linguae
    
  • volubility: volubilitas, solutio linguae
    
  • to be united by having a common language: eiusdem linguae societate coniunctum esse cum aliquo (De Or. 3. 59. 223)
    
  • to speak the Greek language: graece or graeca lingua loqui
    
  • to know Latin: latinam linguam scire or didicisse
    
  • to introduce a new word into the Latin language: inducere novum verbum in latinam linguam
    
  • maintain a devout silence (properly, utter no ill-omened word): favete ore, linguis = εὐφημειτε
    

• lengua, lingoa, lengoa

Inherited from Latin lingua, from Proto-Italic *denɣwā, from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s.

• IPA^(key): /ˈliŋ.ɡu̯a/
• Rhymes: -iŋɡu̯a
• Hyphenation: lin‧gua

lingua f (plural *linguas)

1. tongue (flexible muscular organ in the mouth)
   • 13th century CE, Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Códice rico, cantiga 101 (facsimile):

     Que logo llapareceu.
     ⁊ e con ſas mãoſ tãgeu
     llo roſtr e o guareceu.
     ⁊ foi lla lingua ſoltar
     Ben pod a ſennoꝛ ſen
     par. faʒer oyr ⁊ falar

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• Fala: lengua
• Galician: lingua
• Portuguese: língua (see there for further descendants)

• Manuel Ferreiro (2014–2024) “lingua”, in Universo Cantigas. Edición crítica da poesía medieval galego-portuguesa (in Galician), A Coruña: UDC, →ISSN

lingua f (plural linguas)

1. Pre-reform spelling (until Brazil 1943/Portugal 1911) of língua.

From Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”).

lingua f (plural linguas)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Puter, Vallader) language

• (Rumantsch Grischun) linguatg
• (Puter, Vallader, poetic) linguach
• (poetic) favella

lingua f (plural lingui)

1. (eye dialect) Alternative form of lìngua