lingula

Forms

lingula f (genitive lingulae); first declension^[1] It is also spelled ⟨ligula⟩, the form the OLD and Georges use as their head.^[2][3] Martial condemns ⟨lingula⟩ in the sense of a spoon.^[2]

Etymology

It is a diminutive, from Latin lingua (“tongue”).^[4][5][1] The OLD sees in it partly the diminutive of the noun and partly the stem ⟨lig-⟩ of lingō (“to lick”) with the suffix ⟨-ula⟩, and Wiktionary allows some influence from that verb.^[2][1] Ancient grammarians derived ⟨ligula⟩, the shoe strap, from ligō¹ (“to bind”).^[4][3] The noun for tongue goes back to Proto-Italic *dn̥χ(u)wā- and Proto-Indo-European *dnǵh-uh₂ (“tongue”), with its ⟨l-⟩ taken over from the verb for licking.^[5] Cognate with Oscan fangvam (“tongue”), Old Irish tengae, Sanskrit जिह्वा (jihvā-) and Old High German zunga.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius,^[5] whose line ne mihi gerere morem videar lingua, verum lingula, quoted by Varro and Gellius, plays on the two words;^[4][2] Gellius explains that the old writers called a small oblong sword shaped like a tongue lingula.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Most of its senses are tongue-shaped things.^[2][3] Cato uses it of a part of a press and of the spoon served with a sweet cake, and Columella and Pliny the Elder of a spoon for skimming or ladling;^[2][3] Columella and Scribonius Largus also use it as a measure, a spoonful.^[2][3] It named the flap of a shoe, in Ovid, Martial and Juvenal,^[2] and Caesar describes towns set on the tips of spits of land and headlands.^[2][3] Columella uses it of a tenon at the top of a post, Vitruvius of the short arm of a lever, Pliny the Elder of the vibrating reed of a pipe, and Apuleius of the blade of a strigil and of the tentacles of cuttlefish.^[2][3] Plautus uses it once as a term of abuse whose sense is uncertain.^[2]

British medieval writers used it for a little tongue and for the gullet, for a strip of land, and for the clapper of a bell, the tongue of a balance, the pin of a brooch or buckle and the tails of a banner.^[6] The form ⟨ligula⟩ survives in Spanish and Portuguese ⟨legra⟩.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it of a small sword.^[5][4][7]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of part of a press and of a spoon.^[2][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of spits of land.^[2][7]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the short arm of a lever.^[2][7]
• 1237 – An English charter uses it of a strip of land.^[6]
• 1533 – Bath churchwardens' accounts use it of a bell clapper.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A kind of spoon; a spoonful, as a measure.^[2][3]
2. A tongue-shaped projection or flap, especially the flap of a shoe.^[2][3]
3. A spit of land.^[2][8]
4. A tenon; the short arm of a lever.^[2][3]
5. The reed of a pipe; the sounding end of an organ pipe.^[2]
6. The blade of a strigil; the tentacle of a cuttlefish.^[2][8]
7. A short sword.^[2][3]
8. A term of abuse of uncertain sense.^[2]
9. (Medieval Latin) A little tongue; a strip of land; a bell clapper, the tongue of a balance, the pin of a buckle, the tail of a banner.^[6]

Word family

• lingulātus

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.