tongue

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tʌŋ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tunge, inherited from Old English tunge (“tongue; speech, language”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *tungōn,^[3][5] which also gave Old Saxon and Old Norse tunga, Dutch tong, German Zunge and Gothic tuggō.^[2][3] Outside Germanic it is related to Old Latin dingua, Latin lingua (altered under the influence of lingere “to lick”) and Old Irish teng,^[3][4][5] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *dnghu- (“tongue”).^[2] By regular development it would be spelled tung; the ending -gue is a 14th-century attempt to show the pronunciation of the g.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The organ of speech, and speech or language itself: about 890 in the OED; before 899 in Barnhart, in Alfred's translation of Bede.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a people's language was already in Old English;^[2][5] the King James Bible's gift of tongues continues it.^[6] The tongues of fire seen at Pentecost are referred to by about 1000.^[6] An animal's tongue as food is from about 1420, and other tongue-shaped objects (of a shoe, a bell, land) from the 16th century.^[6][5] The verb first meant to scold or reproach (1388), and later to touch or lick with the tongue (1680s).^[6][2] To tongue notes on a wind instrument is by 1936.^[6][2] Putting one's tongue in one's cheek was an 18th-century gesture of contempt and meant speaking insincerely, and tongue in cheek as an expression is from the mid-20th century.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 890 – the organ of speech; speech.^[6]
• c. 1000 – the tongues of fire at Pentecost.^[6]
• 1388 – the verb, to scold.^[6]
• c. 1420 – tongue as food.^[6]
• 16th century – something shaped like a tongue.^[5]
• 1680s – to lick.^[2]
• 1936 – to tongue on a wind instrument.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The movable muscular organ in the mouth, used for tasting, swallowing and speaking.
2. A language or dialect: her native tongue.
3. A way of speaking: a sharp tongue.
4. The tongue of an animal, such as an ox, eaten as food.
5. Something long and narrow like a tongue, such as the flap under the laces of a shoe or a strip of land.

Verb

1. To separate notes on a wind instrument with the tongue.
2. To touch or lick with the tongue.

Word family

• tonguelike
• tongueless

Related words

• lingual
• language
• lingo

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press