tongue
pronunciation
How to pronounce tongue in British English:
UK [tʌŋ]
How to pronounce tongue in American English:
US [tʌŋ]
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- Noun:
- a mobile mass of muscular tissue covered with mucous membrane and located in the oral cavity
- a human written or spoken language used by a community; opposed to e.g. a computer language
- any long thin projection that is transient
- a manner of speaking
- a narrow strip of land that juts out into the sea
- the tongue of certain animals used as meat
- the flap of material under the laces of a shoe or boot
- metal striker that hangs inside a bell and makes a sound by hitting the side
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- Verb:
- articulate by tonguing, as when playing wind instruments
- lick or explore with the tongue
Word Origin
- tongue
- tongue: [OE] Tongue is a general Germanic word, with relatives in German zunge, Dutch tong, Swedish tonga, and Danish tonge. These all evolved from a prehistoric Germanic *tunggōn, whose ultimate ancestor was Indo- European *dnghwā-. This also produced Latin lingua ‘tongue, language’ (source of English language, linguistic, etc), Welsh tafod ‘tongue’, Russian jazyk ‘tongue’, etc.=> language, linguistic
- tongue (n.)
- Old English tunge "tongue, organ of speech; speech, a people's language," from Proto-Germanic *tungon (cognates: Old Saxon and Old Norse tunga, Old Frisian tunge, Middle Dutch tonghe, Dutch tong, Old High German zunga, German Zunge, Gothic tuggo), from PIE *dnghwa- (cognates: Latin lingua "tongue, speech, language," from Old Latin dingua; Old Irish tenge, Welsh tafod, Lithuanian liezuvis, Old Church Slavonic jezyku). For substitution of -o- for -u-, see come. The spelling of the ending of the word apparently is a 14c. attempt to indicate proper pronunciation, but the result is "neither etymological nor phonetic, and is only in a very small degree historical" [OED]. In the "knowledge of a foreign language" sense in the Pentecostal miracle, from 1520s. Tongue-tied is first recorded 1520s. To hold (one's) tongue "refrain from speaking" was in Old English. Johnson has tonguepad "A great talker."
- tongue (v.)
- "to touch with the tongue, lick," 1680s, from tongue (n.). Earlier as a verb it meant "drive out by order or reproach" (late 14c.). Related: Tongued; tonguing.
Example
- 1. Light flicks of the tongue may not make it .
- 2. How should partly knowing a tongue be tallied ?
- 3. Like fingerprints , everyone 's tongue print is different .
- 4. The appointment did nothing to curb the professor 's tongue .
- 5. The tongue tied plumber became a powerful orator .