lung

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈlʌŋ/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English lunge, inherited from Old English lungen (plural),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *lunganjo-,^[2][3] source also of Old Norse lunga, Dutch long and German Lunge,^[2][3] literally the light organ, from PIE Proto-Indo-European *legwh- (“light, not heavy”) (see light),^[2][5][6] the source also of Russian lëgkoje, lung.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Either of the two breathing organs: about 1000, in Ælfric's Glossary.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The lungs were perhaps so named because in a cooking pot they float while the heart and liver do not;^[2] compare lights, the lungs of slaughtered animals,^[5][6] and Portuguese leve, Irish scamán and Welsh ysgyfaint, all words for lungs from words meaning light.^[2] Open spaces in a city, the lungs of London, are from 1651.^[7] Analogous organs in other animals are from 1889.^[7] A chemist's assistant who blows the fire, a lungs, is an obsolete sense of 1610.^[7] Lung-power, strength of voice, is from 1852, and lung cancer is attested from 1882.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – lungen.^[3]
• 1610 – one who blows the fire (obsolete).^[7]
• 1651 – lungs of a city.^[7]
• 1852 – lung-power.^[2]
• 1882 – lung cancer.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Either of the two spongy organs in the chest that take in oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from the blood.
2. A similar organ in some other animals, such as spiders and snails.

Word family

• lungful
• leather-lunged
• lunged
• lunger
• lungfish
• lungworm
• lungwort
• black lung

Related words

• lights
• light
• pulmonary

Usage notes

At the top of one's lungs means in one's loudest voice.^[8] The related adjectives are pulmonary and pneumonic.^[8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins