[L., = tongue; in sense 2 prob. chiefly from It.]
1. 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, trans. 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. F. P. 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 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. India, I. 121. That clear, simple, graceful, flexible, and all-expressive Urdu speech, which is even now the lingua franca of most parts of India and the special favourite of the ruling race.
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.
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?
