lingua

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈlɪŋ.ɡʷa]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈliŋ.ɡʷa]^[1]

Forms

lingua f (genitive linguae); first declension^[1] An older form dingua is recorded by Marius Victorinus.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *dn̥χ(u)wā-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰ-uh₂ (“tongue”).^[2][1] The old form dingua took its /l/ from lingō “to lick”.^[2][5][1]

Cognate with Oscan fangvam (“tongue”),^[2] and further with Old Irish tengae (“tongue”), Sanskrit जिह्वा (jihvā́, “tongue”), Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌲𐌲𐍉 (tuggō, “tongue”) and English tongue.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears in the Laws of the Twelve Tables.^[2][6] In Plautus a miser threatens, “I'll cut out her tongue and dig out her eyes”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant the tongue and the tongue as the organ of speech, as Plautus' libera lingua “a free tongue” and Terence's “my tongue sticks with fear”.^[3] It meant speech and eloquence, as Cicero's teacher “not only of speech but of mind and virtue”, and a language or dialect, as Plautus' man who “knows all languages”.^[3]

Things shaped like tongues took the name: plants, and a tongue of land, as in Pacuvius and Livy.^[3] Medieval Latin used it for the clapper of a bell and for a nation,^[7] and organ builders for parts of an organ.^[8] It survives as Romanian limbă, Italian lingua, French langue and Portuguese língua.^[1] English language came through Old French from a Vulgar Latin derivative.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables use it.^[6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for the tongue and for languages.^[3][6]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius uses it for a tongue of land.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for speech and eloquence.^[3][6]
• late 13th century – English language is first recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The tongue.^[3][4]
2. The tongue as organ of speech.^[3]
3. Speech, eloquence; an utterance.^[3][1]
4. A language, dialect.^[3][1]
5. A tongue of land.^[3][1]
6. (Medieval Latin) The clapper of a bell.^[7]
7. (Medieval Latin) A nation.^[7]

Word family

• bilinguis
• ēlinguis
• ēlinguō
• ligula
• ligusticus
• linguārium
• linguātus
• linguāx
• linguōsus
• trilinguis
• bisulcilingua
• linguālis

Related words

• lingō
• English language
• English linguist
• English tongue

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes lingua, the speech of any people, however uncultivated, from sermo, the speech of a cultivated people.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Lexicon musicum Latinum medii aevi (1992–), Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften; online ed. Wörterbuchnetz
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper