lingua

Meaning

1. feminineliterallythe tongue
   Ut lingua lambentem pueros magister [...] inveneritThat the teacher founded [the wolf] licking the boys by the tongue27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita 1.4
   sub ea minor lingua nulli ova generantium.No oviparous species possesses the lesser tongue (the epiglottis) below the uvula.77 CE – 79 CE, Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 11.17.66
2. femininemetonymicallya tongue, utterance, language, speech
   […], largus opum et lingua melior, sed frigida bello dextera,[…][…]: lavish of his wealth, and a better speaker, but with a hand frozen in battle: […]29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 11.338
3. femininemetonymicallythe tongue or language of a people
   […], 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.45 BCE, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum 1.10
4. femininemetonymicallyobsoletea dialect, idiom or mode of speech
   […]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.c. 95 CE, Quintilianus, Institutio oratoria 12.10.34
5. femininemetonymicallypoetica voice, note, song, bark, etc.
   volucrum linguas et praepetis omina pennaethe language of birds and the omens of their wings in flight29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 3.361
6. femininemetonymicallyan utterance, expression
   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 wayc. 95 CE, Quintilianus, Institutio oratoria 1.1.35
7. femininemetonymicallyto hold one's tongue (linguam comprimere, linguam tenēre)
8. feminineRanunculus lingua (a flowering plant)
   Lingua herba nascitur circa fontes.The plant called "tongue" grows around springs.77 CE – 79 CE, Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 24.170
9. femininethe oxtongue, bugloss
   […], 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; […]77 CE – 79 CE, Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 17.112
10. femininethe houndstongue
11. femininea tongue of land
    Idae promunturium, cuius lingua in altum proicit.High Ida's cape, whose tongue into the deep extends.c. 177 CE, Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 4.17
12. femininea spoonful
13. femininethe tongue or reed of a Roman tibiae
    […]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 resemblance by putting water into slanted reeds and breathing into the holes or by applying some slight check with the tongue.77 CE – 79 CE, Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 10.84
14. femininethe short arm of a lever
    […]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.c. 15 BCE, Vitruvius, De architectura 10.8

Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers

Choosing the right word Döderlein's Latin Synonyms

Declension

Phrases from Meissner's Latin Phrase-Book

linguae solutio

volubility.

commercium linguae

intercourse of speech.

lingua promptum esse

to have a ready tongue.

volubilitas, solutio linguae

volubility.

graece or graeca lingua loqui

to speak the Greek language.

favete ore, linguis = εὐφημειτε

maintain a devout silence (properly, utter no ill-omened word).

latinam linguam scire or didicisse

to know Latin.

inducere novum verbum in latinam linguam

to introduce a new word into the Latin language.

Origins

1. Proto-Indo-European*dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s
2. Proto-Italic*dn̥ɣwā
3. Latinlingua

Latin lingua From older dingua (attested as a rare word in Gaius Marius Victorinus), from Proto-Italic *dn̥ɣwā, 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.

In English words that came into English from lingua

• language*linguāticum
• linguistlingua
• bilingualbilinguis
• linguallinguālis
• lingolingua
• sublingualsublinguālis
• languetlingua
• linguiformlinguifōrmis
• languettelingua
• linguaphilelingua
• ligulaligula
• lingualingua
• lingulalingula
• lingulatelingula
• linguanautlingua
• linguaphilialingua
• bilinguisbilinguis
• linguaciouslinguax

Related words