lengua

See also: léngua, lèngua, and łéngua

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish lengua (“tongue”). Doublet of langue, lingua, and tongue.

Noun

lengua (uncountable)

1. A Mexican dish consisting of beef tongue used to make tacos.

Anagrams

• langue, lagune, Luange, genual, Naugle, ulnage

Ladino

Noun

lengua f (Hebrew spelling לינגוה, plural lenguas)

1. Alternative form of lingua
   • 1979, Isaac ben Michael Badhav, Ana María Riaño López, Un tratado sefardí de moral‎^[1], Ameller, →ISBN, page 53:

     “Si me olƀidare de ti, ¡O Yᵉrûšāláyim!, se olƀide mi dereĉa, se apege mi lengua a mi paladar, si no me akordare de ti, si no enaltesiere a Yᵉrûšāláyim soƀre la kaƀesera de mi alegría”

     If I will forget about you, O Jerusalem, [if] my right is forgotten, [if] my tongue sticks to my palate, if I won’t agree with you, if I do not rise to Jerusalem over the leader of my pleasure.

   • 2000, La Lettre Sépharade‎^[2], numbers 1–19, La Lettre Sépharade, page 7:

     Mi primera lengua fue el espanyol muestro, i syempre fue la lengua de famiya.

     My mother tongue was our Spanish, and it was always our family’s language.

Ligurian

Alternative forms

• léngoa (Grafîa ofiçiâ)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈleŋɡwa/

Noun

lengua f (plural lengue)

1. (anatomy) tongue (flexible muscular organ in the mouth)
2. (metonymically) language

   Synonym: lenguaggio

3. (zoology) common sole (Solea solea)

Derived terms

• lengoa de can
• lenguaggio

Lombard

Etymology

Inherited from Latin lingua.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈleːŋɡwa/‚ IPA^(key): /ˈleŋɡwa/

Noun

lengua f

1. tongue
2. (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)

Neapolitan

Etymology

Inherited from Latin lingua.

Pronunciation

• (Naples) IPA^(key): [ˈleŋɡwə]

Noun

lengua f (plural lengue)

1. tongue
2. language

References

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 106: “la lingua” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it

Old Galician-Portuguese

Noun

lengua

1. Alternative form of lingua

References

• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “lengua”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “lengua”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Old Occitan

Alternative forms

• lenga

Etymology

Inherited from Latin lingua.

Noun

lengua f (oblique plural lenguas, nominative singular lengua, nominative plural lenguas)

1. (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)

Related terms

• lengaje

Descendants

• Occitan: lenga

  Gascon: lengua

  Limousin: linga

  Provençal: lengo, lenguo

Old Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Latin lingua.

Noun

lengua f (plural lenguas)

1. (anatomy) tongue
2. (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)

Descendants

• Ladino: alguenga, aluenga, eluenga, lengua, lingua, luenga, לינגוה
• Spanish: lengua
  • Chavacano: lengua
  • Papiamentu: lenga

References

• Ralph Steele Boggs et al. (1946) “lengua”, in Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, volume II, Chapel Hill, page 302

Romansch

Alternative forms

• lieunga (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan)
• glianga (Surmiran)
• laungia (Puter)
• leua (Vallader)

Etymology

Inherited from Latin lingua.

Noun

lengua f (plural lenguas)

1. (Vallader) tongue

Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish lengua, from Latin lingua.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlenɡwa/ [ˈlẽŋ.ɡwa]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -enɡwa
• Syllabification: len‧gua

Noun

lengua f (plural lenguas)

1. tongue (organ)
2. (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: idioma, habla

3. Spanish (subject taught in schools)

Derived terms

• aflojar la lengua
• andar en lenguas
• atar la lengua
• beso con lengua
• darle a la lengua
• de lengua en lengua
• deslenguar
• don de lenguas
• en la punta de la lengua
• familia de lenguas
• hablar en lenguas
• hacerse lenguas de
• interpretación de lenguas
• irse de la lengua
• joven de lenguas
• lengua aislada
• lengua cervina
• lengua de buey
• lengua de ciervo
• lengua de escorpión
• lengua de estropajo
• lengua de fuego
• lengua de gato
• lengua de hacha
• lengua de oc
• lengua de oíl
• lengua de oveja
• lengua de perro
• lengua de señas
• lengua de sierpe
• lengua de signos
• lengua de tierra
• lengua de trapo
• lengua de vaca
• lengua de víbora
• lengua del agua
• lengua extranjera
• lengua franca
• lengua materna
• lengua minoritaria
• lengua muerta
• lengua natural
• lengua viperina
• lenguaraz
• lengüeta
• lengüicorto
• lenguón
• malas lenguas
• no tener pelos en la lengua
• segunda lengua
• trabalenguas
• trabarse la lengua
• trastrabarse la lengua

Related terms

• lenguaje
• lenguaz
• lingual
• lingüiforme
• lingüística

Descendants

• Chavacano: lengua
• Papiamentu: lenga

Further reading

• “lengua”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10