tongue

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The soft, movable organ in the mouth used for tasting, eating, and speaking.

   She burned her tongue on the hot soup.

2. 2
   noun

   A language.

   He was speaking in his native tongue.

3. 3
   noun

   A long, thin shape that points out from something.

   Tongues of flame licked at the walls.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Tongue is inherited from Old English and ultimately belongs to the same ancient word family as Latin lingua, the source of lingo and language. The spelling difference conceals this distant relationship.

From Middle English tongue, a late spelling of tong(e), tung(e), from Old English tunge, from Proto-West Germanic *tungā (“tongue”), from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ (“tongue”), from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s (“tongue”). Cognate with Dutch tong (“tongue”), German Zunge (“tongue”), Danish and Norwegian tunge (“tongue”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Swedish tunga (“tongue”), Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌲𐌲𐍉 (tuggō, “tongue”), Irish teanga (“tongue”), Asturian and Catalan llengua (“tongue”), Aragonese luenga (“tongue”), French langue (“tongue”), Galician and Latin lingua (“tongue”), Leonese llingua (“tongue”), Mirandese…

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary