language

English Online Dictionary. What means language‎? What does language mean?

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: lăngʹgwĭj, IPA^(key): /ˈlæŋɡwɪd͡ʒ/
  • (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): [ˈlæŋɡwɪd͡ʒ]
  • (General American) IPA^(key): (see /æ/ raising) [ˈle(ɪ)ŋɡwɪd͡ʒ]
  • (Canada) IPA^(key): [ˈlæːŋɡwɪd͡ʒ], [ˈlaŋɡwed͡ʒ]
  • (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): [ˈlaŋɡwɪd͡ʒ], [ˈlaŋɡwed͡ʒ]
• Hyphenation: lan‧guage
• Rhymes: -æŋɡwɪdʒ

Etymology 1

From Middle English langage, language, from Old French language, from Vulgar Latin *linguāticum, from Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”), from Old Latin dingua (“tongue”), from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s (“tongue, speech, language”). Doublet of langaj. Displaced native Old English ġeþēode.

Noun

language (countable and uncountable, plural languages)

2. (countable) 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.
   • 1867, Report on the Systems of Deaf-Mute Instruction pursued in Europe, quoted in 1983 in History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907 →ISBN, page 240:

     Hence the natural language of the mute is, in schools of this class, suppressed as soon and as far as possible, and its existence as a language, capable of being made the reliable and precise vehicle for the widest range of thought, is ignored.
3. (uncountable) The ability to communicate using words.
4. (uncountable) A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.

5. (countable, uncountable, figurative) The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.
6. (countable, uncountable) A body of sounds, signs and/or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
7. (computing, countable) A computer language; a machine language.
8. (uncountable) Manner of expression.
   • 1782, William Cowper, Hope

     Their language simple, as their manners meek, […]

9. (uncountable) The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.

10. (uncountable) Profanity.

Synonyms

• (form of communication): see Thesaurus:language
• (vocabulary of a particular field): see Thesaurus:jargon
• (computer language): computer language, programming language, machine language
• (particular words used): see Thesaurus:wording

Hypernyms

• medium

Hyponyms

• See Category:en:Languages

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

language (third-person singular simple present languages, present participle languaging, simple past and past participle languaged)

1. (rare, now nonstandard or technical) To communicate by language; to express in language.

Interjection

language

1. An admonishment said in response to vulgar language.

See also

Etymology 2

Alteration of languet.

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.

References

• “language”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• language in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• “language”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

French

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. Archaic spelling of langage.

Middle English

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. Alternative form of langage

Middle French

Alternative forms

• langage, langaige, languaige

Etymology

From Old French language.

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Related terms

• langue

Descendants

• French: langage, language (archaic or misspelling)
  • Haitian Creole: langaj
    • → English: langaj
  • Mauritian Creole: langaz
  • Louisiana Creole: langaj
  • → Romanian: limbaj (partial calque)

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *linguāticum. Attested in the Passion. Derivable from langue +‎ -age.

Pronunciation

• (archaic) IPA^(key): /lenˈɡwad͡ʒə/
• (classical) IPA^(key): /lanˈɡad͡ʒə/
• (late) IPA^(key): /lanˈɡaʒə/

Noun

language oblique singular, f (oblique plural languages, nominative singular language, nominative plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Descendants

• Bourguignon: langaige
• Middle French: language, langage, langaige, languaige
  • French: langage, language (archaic or misspelling)
    • Haitian Creole: langaj
      • → English: langaj
    • Mauritian Creole: langaz
    • Louisiana Creole: langaj
    • → Romanian: limbaj (partial calque)

Borrowings: (some possibly from O.Occitan lenguatge instead)

• → Middle English: langage, language, langag, langwache
  • English: language
• → Friulian: lengaç
• → Ladin: lingaz
• → Medieval Latin: linguāgium
• → Romansch: linguatg, lungatg (Sursilvan, Surmiran), lungaitg (Sutsilvan), linguach (Puter, Vallader)

References