‖ lingua
(ˈlɪŋgwə)
[L., = tongue; in sense 2 prob. chiefly from It.]
1. a. The tongue or a tongue-like organ; spec. in Ent. (a) the ligula, or the central well-developed portion of it; (b) a tongue-like prolongation of the hypopharynx; (c) ‘the tubular proboscis of Lepidoptera’ (Cent. Dict.).
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. 358 Lingua (the Tongue), the organ situated within the Labium or emerging from it, by which insects in many cases collect their food and pass it down to the Pharynx. Ibid. 359 According to circumstances it might perhaps be denominated Lingua or Ligula. 1877 Huxley Anat. Inv. Anim. vii. 410 The anterior surface of the lingua and hypopharynx is beset with fine hairs. 1878 Bell tr. Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 246 In the Hymenoptera... A process, the tongue (lingua), is developed on the surface of the labium turned towards the mouth, and this has two lateral appendages, or secondary tongues (paraglossæ) at its base. 1880 Pascoe Zool. Classif. (ed. 2) 280 Lingua,..is sometimes applied to a part of the sucking-apparatus of insects, and to the ‘inner integument’ of the labrum in some Orthoptera, &c. |
b. = lingo2.
| 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVI. 230/2 The linguas are the long pieces of round or square lead tied to the end of each thread of the long-harness to keep them tight. |
2. a. A language or ‘lingo’.
| 1675 J. Smith Chr. Relig. Appeal i. 43 In translating out of, and into those Lingua's they had at their Fingers ends. 1678 Geneva Ball. ii. in W. W. Wilkins Pol. Ballads (1860) I. 203 Was ever such a Beuk-learn'd Clerk That speaks all linguas of the Ark? 1719 D'Urfey Pills III. 100 We teach them their Lingua, to Crave and to Cant. a 1734 North Exam. i. ii. §90 If they could not (in the Lingua of our East Angles) have t'one, they would have none of t'other. 1857 R. Tomes Amer. in Japan viii. 179 Many of the women speak a little of the lingua called Chinese English, or, in the cant phrase, pigeon. |
b. lingua franca [
It.,
= ‘Frankish tongue’]: a mixed language or jargon used in the Levant, consisting largely of Italian words deprived of their inflexions. Also
transf. any mixed jargon formed as a medium of intercourse between people speaking different languages.
| 1678 Dryden Limberham i. i, 'Tis a kind of Lingua Franca, as I have heard the Merchants call it; a certain compound Language, made up of all Tongues, that passes through the Levant. 1737 [S. Berington] G. di Lucca's Mem. 28 That mixed Language called Lingua Franca, so necessary in Eastern Countries: It is made up of Italian, Turkish, Persian, and Arabian. 1787 Beckford Italy (1834) II. 224 Addressing himself to me..in a most fluent lingua-franca, half Italian and half Portuguese. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xiii, One of the men could speak a little Lingua Franca. 1872 Beames Comp. Gram. Aryan Lang. I. 121 That..all-expressive Urdu speech, which is even now the lingua franca of most parts of India. 1877 F. Burnaby Through Asia Minor I. vi. 64 ‘What do you want?’—he asked in lingua franca, that undefined mixture of Italian, French, Greek, and Spanish, which is spoken throughout the Mediterranean. 1971 J. Spencer Eng. Lang. W. Afr. 31 A very complex infrastructure of scores of vernacular languages as well as a number of regional lingue franche. 1974 R. A. Hall External Hist. Romance Lang. 21 The distribution of the Romance languages is best treated under four heads:..(3) use as lingue franche. |
| fig. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. 170 What concern have we with the shades of dialect in Homer or Theocritus, provided they speak the spiritual lingua franca that abolishes all alienage of race? 1955 Times 2 July 5/2 Cold war recrimination became the east–west lingua franca. 1958 Times 16 Sept. 3/2 Mr. Morrice handles them [sc. motifs] by cunningly intermingling realism with the lingua franca of ballet. |