Etymologically
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lung

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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

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