lingual

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin linguālis (“of the tongue”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”) and the suffix -ālis.^[2][5] In medieval Latin the adjective meant "of the tongue" from the 9th century and "tongue-shaped" from the 13th.^[2] The Latin noun comes from an older dingua, from Proto-Indo-European *dnghu- (“tongue”), which is also the source of Old English tunge and so of tongue; its l- is probably due in part to association with lingō (“to lick”).^[3] The OED compares French lingual, recorded only from 1694.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tongue-shaped, of a cautery: before 1400, in the translation of Lanfranc's Science of Cirurgie.^[2][3] Barnhart and Dictionary.com read the same Middle English use as a noun, a tongue-shaped surgical instrument for cauterizing.^[4][8] The sense "of the tongue" follows in 1650, in J. Bulwer's Anthropometamorphosis;^[2][4][5] Etymonline gives the 1640s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense "tongue-shaped" is recorded only in Middle English.^[2][7] Bishop Wilkins applied the word in 1668 to speech sounds formed by the tongue, as both adjective and noun.^[2] It could also mean "spoken", between 1677 and 1774.^[2] The sense "of language" followed in 1775, a use the OED sets beside the later linguistic^[2] and Collins now calls rare.^[9] In the same period the anatomical sense widened to things near or resembling the tongue: the noun for a lingual nerve or artery (1778), tongue-like organs of insects and molluscs (1826), and the side of a tooth or jawbone facing the tongue (1829), mainly in dentistry.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1400 – tongue-shaped, of a cautery (now obsolete).^[2][3]
• 1650 – of or relating to the tongue.^[2][5][4]
• 1668 – of a speech sound, formed by the tongue; also a noun, such a sound.^[2]
• 1677 – consisting of speech, spoken (obsolete by 1774).^[2]
• 1775 – of or relating to language.^[2]
• 1778 – noun, a lingual nerve, artery or vein.^[2]
• 1826 – of a tongue-like organ in an invertebrate.^[2]
• 1829 – of the side of a tooth or jawbone that faces the tongue.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the tongue, or to a part like it: lingual inflammation.^[9][5][2]
2. Shaped like a tongue.^[5]
3. Lying near or next to the tongue, especially of the side of a tooth or jawbone that faces it: a filling on the lingual surface of the molar.^[5][2]
4. (phonetics) Of a speech sound, formed with the tongue; sometimes specifically dental or retroflex.^[5][2][9]
5. (rare) Of or relating to language; linguistic.^[9][5][2]
6. (obsolete, before 1400) Of a cautery, tongue-shaped.^[2][7]

Noun

1. (phonetics) A sound formed with the tongue, such as the Scots r.^[9][2]
2. (anatomy) A lingual nerve, artery or vein.^[2][7]

Word family

• lingually
• bilingual
• buccolingual
• dentilingual
• interlingual
• intralingual
• monolingual
• multilingual

Related words

• tongue
• language
• lingua
• linguist
• lingo
• sublingual

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins