lingo

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain, and the dictionaries disagree.^[2][3] The Oxford dictionaries favour Portuguese: it is probably borrowed from Portuguese lingoa (“tongue, language”), an old variant of língua,^[4][5][6][2] from Latin lingua (“tongue”).^[4][6][5] Johnson had already labelled it Portuguese.^[7] The revised OED is less specific: it derives the word from one or more Romance descendants of the Latin word, such as the Portuguese one and Italian lingua, perhaps with the suffix -o, and compares the slightly later lingua and perhaps lingua franca.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary gives either the Portuguese word or Sabir lingua (“language”), akin to Catalan llengua and Spanish lengua.^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Barnhart, Klein and Chambers prefer Occitan lengo (“tongue, language”), also lingo,^{[9][3][10][11]} which Barnhart takes from Old Occitan lenga;^[3] Weekley called it a sailors' word of the 17th century, from Marseille or Bordeaux, in Provençal or Gascon.^[12] Barnhart doubts that it came through Marseille, and thinks the older view, that it is an alteration of the Latin word, not without merit, pointing to a few quotations with an anglicized form linguo.^[3] Etymonline also takes it as probably a corruption of the Latin word, perhaps as a shortening of the Lingua Franca name, or else from Occitan,^[13] Collins suggests the Lingua Franca and compares the Portuguese word,^[14] and Dictionary.com calls it apparently an alteration of lingua or lingua franca.^[15] The Latin word is related to tongue,^[9][8] and Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *dnghu- (“tongue”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A language or dialect that is strange or unintelligible to the hearer, especially a foreign one: 1659, in the New Haven Colonial Records.^[2][9] Barnhart points out that those records were not published until 1858, when the word may have been inserted, and considers lingo a word of the 1700s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word was colloquial from the start, originally jocular and slighting,^[4] and Johnson (1755) called it "a low cant word", quoting Congreve's Way of the World: "I have thoughts to learn somewhat of your lingo, before I cross the seas."^[7] Later it was also used of the vocabulary or jargon of a particular subject or group,^[2][4] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds a person's own characteristic way of speaking.^[9]

Timeline

• 1659 – a strange or foreign language.^[2][9] Barnhart dates the word to 1660, and doubts that record.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (informal) A foreign language, or any language or dialect that sounds strange to the hearer: She never picked up the local lingo.^{[14][9][2][4]}
2. The special vocabulary or jargon of a field, trade or group: the lingo of stock traders.^[14][9][2]
3. A person's characteristic way of speaking.^[9]

Related words

• lingua franca
• lingua
• lingual
• linguist
• language
• tongue

Usage notes

The plural is lingoes or lingos.^[9][14] The weaving term lingo, a weight hanging from the cords of a Jacquard loom, is recorded from 1731 and has a separate origin:^[2][4][9] the OED takes it as perhaps a variant of lingot, an ingot, or as from the Latin word for its shape,^[2] while Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Dictionary.com derive it from French lingot (“ingot”).^[9][15] Wright recorded it in Northern Ireland as a long, thin iron weight used in Jacquard looms.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
16. ^ 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)