Etymologically
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language

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈlæŋ.ɡwɪdʒ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English langage, borrowed from Old French langage (“speech, words; a people, nation”),[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *linguāticum,[2][5][6] from Latin lingua (“tongue; speech, language”),[2][3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *dnghu- (“tongue”),[2][7] the source also of tongue.[3][6] The -u- is an Anglo-French insertion, after langue (“tongue”), and was not originally pronounced.[2][5][4] Word Origins relates lingua to lick.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

What is said, talk: about 1280, langage,[3] or the late 13th century,[2] with the spelling language about 1330.[3]

Semantic evolution

The speech of a nation, a particular tongue such as English or French, is from about 1300,[3][2] as is “manner of expression”.[2] In Middle English the word was also used of dialects, as when Trevisa wrote that Midlanders understood the northern and southern langages better than northerners and southerners understood each other.[2] The terms of a science or profession are from 1502,[9][10] and non-verbal means of communication, as in the language of flowers, from 1606.[9] Bad language, and in dialect simply language, is abusive talk.[11] A computer language is from 1949.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 1280 – talk, speech.[3]
  • c. 1300 – the language of a people.[3][2]
  • c. 1330 – the spelling language.[3]
  • 1502 – technical vocabulary.[9]
  • 1606 – non-verbal communication.[9]
  • 1949 – a computer language.[9]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The use of spoken sounds, and written symbols for them, to communicate thoughts and feelings.
  2. The system of words used by a particular people or nation.
  3. A system of signs or symbols used for communication, including sign language and computer languages.
  4. The special vocabulary of a field: legal language.
  5. A manner of expression; wording, style: bad language.

Word family

  • metalanguage
  • paralanguage
  • prelanguage
  • slanguage
  • interlanguage
  • assembly language
  • contact language
  • daughter language
  • langue
  • lingua franca
  • lingua
  • linguine
  • linguistics
  • tongue
  • lingual
  • linguist
  • lingo
  • lick

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)