# lingua
## English
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin lingua (“the tongue”). Doublet of langue and tongue.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈlɪŋ.ɡwə/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Noun

lingua (plural linguae or linguas)
* (anatomy) Synonym of tongue.
** 2009, Alex J. Packer, Wise Highs: How to Thrill, Chill, & Get Away from It All Without Alcohol Or Other Drugs, Read How You Want, →ISBN, page 24:Let your lingua loiter on its salty, hard surface. When you finally crack the nut, don’t swallow it right away.
** 2016, E.B. Mendel, If Frogs Could Fly, Sunbridge Books, →ISBN:“I believe it’s from the condition he’s acquired,” she answered while moving closer to examine the elongated lingua. “You can put it back in your mouth now.”
* (entomology) A median process of the labium, at the underside of the mouth in insects, and serving as a tongue.

#### Related terms

* lingua franca

### References

* “lingua”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

### Anagrams

* Gaulin, nilgau

## Galician
### Alternative forms

* língua (reintegrationist)

### Etymology

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese lingua, from Latin lingua. Compare Portuguese língua.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈliŋɡwa/ [ˈliŋ.ɡwɐ]
* IPA: (standard) /ˈliŋɡwa/ [ˈliŋ.ɡwɐ]
* IPA: (gheada) /ˈliŋħwa/ [ˈliŋ.ħwɐ]
* Rhymes: -iŋɡwa
* Rhymes: -iŋɡwa
* Rhymes: -iŋħwa
* Hyphenation: lin‧gua

### Noun

lingua f (plural linguas)
* tongue
    botar a lingua a pacer (idiom)to ramble; to be indiscreet(literally, “to put the tongue to graze”)
* (countable) language (a body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication)

### Further reading

* “lingua”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

## Guinea-Bissau Creole
### Etymology

Derived from Portuguese língua. Cognate with Kabuverdianu lingua.

### Noun

lingua
* tongue
* (countable) language (a body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication)

## Interlingua
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈliŋ.ɡwa/

### Noun

lingua (plural linguas)
* tongue
* (countable) language (a body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication)
    Synonym: linguage

#### Related terms

* linguage
* linguista
* linguistica

## Italian
### Etymology

Inherited from Latin lingua.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈlin.ɡwa/
* Audio ("la lingua"):(file)
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -inɡwa
* Hyphenation: lìn‧gua

### Noun

lingua f (plural lingue)
* tongue
* (countable) language (a body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication)
* strip, tongue (of land)
* (in the plural) foreign languages
* the square horn of an anvil
* (usually in the plural) a type of Italian flatbread

#### Related terms

* lingua artificiale
* lingua di gatto
* linguaccia
* linguaggio
* linguale
* linguata
* linguetta
* linguiforme
* linguina
* linguista
* linguistica
* scioglilingua
* slinguare

#### Descendants

* → Greek: λίγκα (lígka)
* → Maltese: lingwa
* →? Sabir: lingua

### Further reading

* lingua in Collins Italian-English Dictionary
* lingua in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

### Anagrams

* Langiu, i lunga, langui, languì, nilgau

## Kabuverdianu
### Etymology

Derived from Portuguese língua.

### Noun

lingua
* tongue
* (countable) language (a body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication)

## Ladino
### Alternative forms

* alguenga, aluenga, eluenga, lengua, luenga

### Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish lengua (“tongue”), from Latin lingua. Cognate with Spanish lengua and more distantly Yiddish צונג (tsung).

### Noun

lingua f (Hebrew spelling לינגוה, plural linguas)
* tongue
    Synonym: lashon
* (countable) language (a body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication)
    Synonym: lashon
** 1999, Eliezer Papo, La megila de Saray‎, E. Papo, page 6:Aún kon esto se siente akí ke mos topamos delantre de la lingua eskrita del autor mizmo, ke en realidad es únika.Even with this, here it feels that we find ourselves before a written language from the same author, who in reality is unique.

### References

* ↑ “lingua”, in Trezoro de la Lengua Djudeoespanyola.

## Latin
### Alternative forms

* dingua (pre-Classical)

### Etymology

From older dingua (attested as a rare word in Gaius Marius Victorinus), from Proto-Italic *denɣwā, from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s. The change of d- to l- is variously explained by a borrowing from another Italic language with such a shift and/or by a folk-etymological association with the verb lingō (“to lick”); compare Old Armenian լեզու (lezu) and Lithuanian liežùvis for the latter process. Other cognates include German Zunge and English tongue.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈlin.ɡʷa/, [ˈlʲɪŋɡʷä]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈlin.ɡwa/, [ˈliŋɡwä]

### Noun

lingua f (genitive linguae); first declension
* (literally) the tongue
** 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 1.4:Ut lingua lambentem pueros magister [...] inveneritThat the teacher founded [the wolf] licking the boys by the tongue
** c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 11.17.66:sub ea minor lingua nulli ova generantium.No oviparous species possesses the lesser tongue (the epiglottis) below the uvula.
* (transferred sense)
** (metonymically) a tongue, utterance, language, speech
*** 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 11.338: […], largus opum et lingua melior, sed frigida bello dextera, […] […]: lavish of his wealth, and a better speaker, but with a hand frozen in battle: […]
*** the tongue or language of a people
**** 45 BCE, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum 1.10: […], Latinam linguam non modo non inopem, ut vulgo putarent, sed locupletiorem etiam esse quam Graecam. […], the Latin language, so far from having a poor vocabulary, as is commonly supposed, is actually richer than the Greek.
**** (post-classical) a dialect, idiom or mode of speech
***** c. 35 CE – 100 CE, Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 12.10.34: […] illis non verborum modo, sed linguarum etiam inter se differentium copia est.they [the Greeks] have not merely abundance of words, but they have also a number of different dialects.
*** (poetic, of animals) a voice, note, song, bark, etc.
**** 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 3.361:volucrum linguas et praepetis omina pennaethe language of birds and the omens of their wings in flight
*** an utterance, expression
**** c. 35 CE – 100 CE, Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 1.1.35:protinus enim potest interpretationem linguae secretioris, quas Graeci γλώσσας vocantHe can readily learn the explanations or glosses, as the Greeks call them, of the more obscure words by the way
*** to hold one's tongue (linguam comprimere, linguam tenēre)
**** 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 2.601–602:saepe illī dīxerat Almō ‘nāta, tenē linguam,’ nec tamen illa tenet.Many a time had Almo said to her, ‘‘Daughter, hold your tongue,’’ and yet she did not hold it. (The river deity Almo (god) and his daughter, whom Ovid identifies as the Naiad Lara, otherwise known in ancient mythology as Larunda or Dea Tacita. The name of the ever-talkative Lara – a repeated syllable, as in ‘‘la-la’’ – echoes the Greek λαλεῖν, to talk, chat, prattle, speak.)
** tongue-shaped things:
*** Ranunculus lingua (a flowering plant)
    Synonym: lingulāca
**** c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 24.170:Lingua herba nascitur circa fontes.The plant called "tongue" grows around springs.
*** the oxtongue, bugloss
**** c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 17.112: […], lingua bubula—herbae id genus est—insuper optegi iubet eamque inligari opertam stramentis: […] […], but he says it must be covered with a layer of bugloss—a species of plant—as well, and that this should be tied on with a layer of straw; […]
*** the houndstongue
    Synonym: cynoglōssos
*** a tongue of land
**** c. 177 CE, Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 4.17:Idae promunturium, cuius lingua in altum proicit.High Ida's cape, whose tongue into the deep extends.
*** a spoonful
    Synonym: lingula
*** (music) the tongue or reed of a Roman tibiae
**** c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 10.84: […] homines repertos qui sonum earum addita in transversas harundines aqua foramen inspirantes linguave parva aliqua opposita mora indiscreta redderent similitudine. […] there have been found persons who could reproduce the birds' song with an indistinguishable resemblence by putting water into slanted reeds and breathing into the holes or by applying some slight check with the tongue.
*** (classical mechanics) the short arm of a lever
**** c. 15 BCE, Vitruvius, De architectura 10.8: […] lingua sub onus subdita, caput eius unius hominis viribus pressum id onus extollit.with the tongue of the lever placed under the weight, one man's strength, bearing down upon the head of it, heaves up the weight.

#### Inflection

First-declension noun.

#### Derived terms

* bilinguis
* bisulcilingua
* ēlinguis
* linguālis
* linguārium
* *linguāticum
* linguātus
* linguāx
* lingula
* lingulus
* linguōsus
* trilinguis

#### Descendants

* Balkano-Romance:
** Aromanian: limbã
** Istro-Romanian: limbĕ
** Megleno-Romanian: limbă
** Romanian: limbă
* Italo-Dalmatian:
** Corsican: lingua
** Dalmatian: langa, luanga
** Istriot: lèngua, lengua, laèngua
** Italian: lingua, lengua
*** → Greek: λίγκα (lígka)
*** → Maltese: lingwa
*** →? Sabir: lingua
*** ⇒ Italian: linguine (see there for further descendants)
** Neapolitan: lengua, lenga
** Sicilian: lingua
** Venetan: łéngua, łéngoa, léngoa, lengoa, léngua
* Rhaeto-Romance:
** Friulian: lenghe
** Ladin: lënga
** Romansch: lieunga, lengua, glianga, laungia, leua
* Gallo-Italic:
** Emilian: längua
** Ligurian: lengua
** Lombard: lengua
** Piedmontese: lenga
** Romagnol: lèngva
* Gallo-Romance:
** Franco-Provençal: lengoua
** Old French: langue, lingue, lengue
*** Middle French: langue
**** French: langue (see there for further descendants)
*** Champenois: laingue
*** Franc-Comtois: landye
*** Norman: laungue
*** Picard: lingue
*** Poitevin-Saintongeais: lengue
*** Walloon: linwe
* Occitano-Romance:
** Old Catalan: lengua
*** Catalan: llengua
** Old Occitan: lengua, lenga
*** Occitan: lenga
    Gascon: lengua
    Limousin: linga
    Provençal: lengo, lenguo
* Ibero-Romance:
** Aragonese: luenga (with metathesis of /w/)
** Old Galician-Portuguese: lingua, lengoa, lengua, lingoa
*** Fala: lengua
*** Galician: lingua
*** Portuguese: língua (see there for further descendants)
** Old Leonese:
*** Asturian: llingua, llengua, lluengua (Eastern Asturias), ḷḷingua, ḷḷuinga (Ayer), chingua (Valdés), chengua (Valdés), yuönga (Cabrales)
*** Extremaduran: luenga
*** Leonese: llingua
*** Mirandese: lhéngua
** Old Spanish: lengua
*** Ladino: לינגוה / lengua, lingua
*** Spanish: lengua
**** Chavacano: lengua
**** Papiamentu: lenga
* Insular Romance:
** Sardinian: limba (Logudorese), lingua (Campidanese)
* Borrowings:
** → English: lingua
** → Esperanto: lingvo

### References

* “lingua”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “lingua”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* "lingua", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* lingua in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. to have a ready tongue: lingua promptum esse volubility: linguae solutio the Greek language is a richer one than the Latin: lingua graeca latinā locupletior (copiosior, uberior) est intercourse of speech: commercium linguae volubility: volubilitas, solutio linguae to be united by having a common language: eiusdem linguae societate coniunctum esse cum aliquo (De Or. 3. 59. 223) to speak the Greek language: graece or graeca lingua loqui to know Latin: latinam linguam scire or didicisse to introduce a new word into the Latin language: inducere novum verbum in latinam linguam maintain a devout silence (properly, utter no ill-omened word): favete ore, linguis = εὐφημειτε

## Old Galician-Portuguese
### Alternative forms

* lengoa, lengua, lingoa

### Etymology

Inherited from Latin lingua, from Proto-Italic *denɣwā, from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈliŋ.ɡu̯a/
* Rhymes: -iŋɡu̯a
* Hyphenation: lin‧gua

### Noun

lingua f (plural *linguas)
* tongue (flexible muscular organ in the mouth)
** a. 1284, Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Códice rico, cantiga 101 (facsimile):Que logo llapareceu. ⁊ e con ſas mãoſ tãgeu llo roſtr e o guareceu. ⁊ foi lla lingua ſoltar Ben pod a ſennoꝛ ſen par. faʒer oyr ⁊ falarWhat then appeared to [somebody], and touched [somebody] with its hands, cured [somebody’s] face, and was to explain [it] in [somebody’s] language. One can well hear and speak to this gentleman without equal.

#### Descendants

* Fala: lengua
* Galician: lingua
* Portuguese: língua (see there for further descendants)

### References

* Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “lingua”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
* Manuel Ferreiro (2014–2025) “lingua”, in Universo Cantigas. Edición crítica da poesía medieval galego-portuguesa (in Galician), A Coruña: University of A Coruña, →ISSN

## Portuguese
### Noun

lingua f (plural linguas)
* Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of língua.

## Romansch
### Etymology

Inherited from Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”).

### Noun

lingua f (plural linguas)
* (Rumantsch Grischun, Puter, Vallader, countable) language (a body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication)
    Synonyms: (poetic) favella, (Rumantsch Grischun) linguatg, (poetic, Puter, Vallader) linguach

## Sicilian
### Noun

lingua f (plural lingui)
* Eye dialect spelling of lìngua.