tongue - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk 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 lhéngua (“tongue”), Portuguese língua (“tongue”), Spanish lengua (“tongue”), Belarusian and Russian язык (jazyk, “tongue”), Bulgarian ези́к (ezík, “tongue”), Czech and Slovak jazyk (“tongue”), Macedonian јазик (jazik, “tongue”), Polish język (“tongue”), Serbo-Croatian jèzik (“tongue”), Slovene jézik (“tongue”), Ukrainian язи́к (jazýk, “tongue”), Persian زبان (zabân, “tongue”), Sanskrit जि॒ह्वा (jihvā́, “tongue”). Doublet of language and lingua.

The expected modern spelling, both phonetically and etymologically, would be tung. Using ⟨on⟩ for ⟨un⟩ was fairly common in Middle English; compare e.g. yong (“young”). The final ⟨gue⟩ arose to prevent tonge being misread with a soft /dʒ/. However, this spelling only became common at a time when the final ⟨e⟩ was already largely silent, so it is not clear why it was not simply dropped instead.[1] Perhaps the spelling was influenced directly by French langue (“tongue”).

tongue (countable and uncountable, plural tongues)

A tongue (sense 1)

  1. The flexible muscular organ in the mouth that is used to move food around, for tasting and that is moved into various positions to modify the flow of air from the lungs in order to produce different sounds in speech.
    Synonyms: glossa, lingua
    • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.:
      But lering and lurking here and there like ſpies,
      The devil tere their tunges and pike out their ies!
  2. (countable, uncountable) Such an organ, as taken from animals and used for food (especially from cows).
    cold tongue with mustard
    • 1902, E. Nesbit, chapter 4, in Five Children and It‎[1], New York: Dodd, Mead, published 1905, page 136:
      However you eat them, tongue and chicken and new bread are very good things, and no one minds being sprinkled a little with soda-water on a really fine hot day.
  3. Any similar organ, such as the lingual ribbon, or odontophore, of a mollusk; the proboscis of a moth or butterfly; or the lingua of an insect.
  4. (metonymic) A language.
    Synonyms: idiom, language, (colloquial) lingo
    He was speaking in his native tongue.
    • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to IV), page [178]:
      When I pointed to any thing, she told me the Name of it in her own Tongue, so that in a few Days I was able to call for whatever I had a mind to.
    • 1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, chapter 7, in The Return of the Native […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC:
      To dwell on a heath without studying its meanings was like wedding a foreigner without learning his tongue.
    • 2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex‎[2], New York: Picador, Book 2, p. 99:
      My grandfather, accustomed to the multifarious conjugations of ancient Greek verbs, had found English, for all its incoherence, a relatively simple tongue to master.
  5. (obsolete, synecdochic) The speakers of a language, collectively.
  6. (obsolete) A voice, (the distinctive sound of a person's speech); accent (distinctive manner of pronouncing a language).
  7. A manner of speaking, often habitually.
    Synonym: mouth
    • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.:
      Al maters wel pondred and wel to be regarded,
      How ſhuld a fals lying tung then be rewarded?
    • 1715, Daniel Defoe, The Family Instructor‎[3], London: Eman. Matthews, Volume 1, Part 2, Dialogue 2, p. 211:
      [...] his wicked way of Living, his prophane Tongue, and his Contempt of Religion, had made him not very well receiv’d [...]
    • 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Death of the Red Fox”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 162:
      "Well," said he, at last, "your tongue is bold; but I am no unfriend to plainness [...]"
    • 1935, Dorothy L. Sayers, chapter 8, in Gaudy Night‎[4], London: New English Library, published 1970, page 205:
      I’m afraid I’ve inherited my uncle’s tongue and my mother’s want of tact.
    • 1952, John Steinbeck, East of Eden‎[5], London: Heinemann, Part 1, Chapter 2, p. 8:
      Samuel had no equal for soothing hysteria and bringing quiet to a frightened child. It was the sweetness of his tongue and the tenderness of his soul.
    • 1972, Hortense Calisher, Herself‎[6], New York: Arbor House, Part 4, p. 369:
      [...] Frank Marcus’ Sister George, technically a quite ordinary comedy in the old style [...] was remarkable [...] for the frank tongue of its Lesbians [...]
  8. (synecdochic, usually in the plural) A person speaking in a specified manner.
    • 2007, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow, New York: Knopf Doubleday, Book 4, p. 592,[8]
      [...] the drunk, who had been a permanent fixture in that bar, changed location and thereafter moved from bar to bar, saying to inquisitive tongues, Too long a stay in one seat tires the buttocks.
  9. The power of articulate utterance; speech generally.
    I was so overwhelmed my tongue deserted me.
    • 1717, “The Story of Pygmalion and the Statue”, in John Dryden, transl., Ovid’s Metamorphoses in fifteen books‎[9], London: Jacob Tonson, page 344:
      Parrots imitating Human Tongue
  10. (obsolete) Discourse; the fluency of speech or expression.
  11. (obsolete, uncountable) Discourse; fluency of speech or expression.
  1. (obsolete) Honorable discourse; eulogy.
  1. (religion, often in the plural) Glossolalia.
    Synonym: speaking in tongues
  2. In a shoe, the flap of material that goes between the laces and the foot (so called because it resembles a tongue in the mouth).
  1. Any large or long physical protrusion on an automotive or machine part or any other part that fits into a long groove on another part.
  2. A projection, or slender appendage or fixture.
  3. A long, narrow strip of land, projecting from the mainland into a sea or lake.
  1. The pole of a towed or drawn vehicle or farm implement (e.g., trailer, cart, plow, harrow), by which it is pulled; for example, the pole of an ox cart, to the end of which the oxen are yoked.
  1. The clapper of a bell.
  1. (figuratively) An individual point of flame from a fire.
  1. A small sole (type of fish).
  2. (nautical) A short piece of rope spliced into the upper part of standing backstays, etc.; also, the upper main piece of a mast composed of several pieces.
  3. (music) A reed.
  4. (geology) A division of formation; A layer or member of a formation that pinches out in one direction.
  5. (flags) The middle protrusion of a triple-tailed flag.

organ

obsolete: speakers of a language collectively

person speaking in a specified manner

obsolete: discourse, fluency of speech

uncountable: discourse, fluency of speech

obsolete: honourable discourse — see also eulogy

flap in a shoe

nautical: piece of rope spliced into backstays; upper main piece of a mast

geology: division of formation

Translations to be checked

tongue (third-person singular simple present tongues, present participle tonguing, simple past and past participle tongued)

  1. (music, ambitransitive) On a wind instrument, to articulate a note by starting the air with a tap of the tongue, as though by speaking a 'd' or 't' sound (alveolar plosive).
    Playing wind instruments involves tonguing on the reed or mouthpiece.
  2. (transitive) To manipulate with the tongue.
    • 1985, Benjamin Capps, The Trail to Ogallala, TCU Press, →ISBN, page 88:
      [T]he cattle tongued at the damp grass, licking rather than grazing. […]
    1. (transitive, slang, vulgar) To lick, penetrate or manipulate with the tongue during flirting or oral sex.
      • 1986 May 6, T.C. Boyle, Greasy Lake and Other Stories, Penguin, →ISBN:
        I was tonguing her ear and serenading her in a passionate whisper, mimicking Elvis, mimicking Joey.
      • 2024 October 29, Adriana Herrera, Heat and Run: A Steamy F/F/F Omegaverse Novella, Adriana Herrera:
        I was tonguing her sweet spot. "Shit, that's nice." Her breaths got faster as we locked into a delicious rhythm that was hitting my clit just right.
  3. To protrude in relatively long, narrow sections.
    a soil horizon that tongues into clay
  4. To join by means of a tongue and groove.
    to tongue boards together
  5. (intransitive, obsolete) To talk; to prate.
  6. (transitive, obsolete) To speak; to utter.
  7. (transitive, obsolete) To chide; to scold.
  1. ^ Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Tongue, n., Etymology. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved June 27, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2664387729