Langue
/læŋ/noun
A tongue, especially an animal’s tongue, or the French word for “language.”
Did you know?Its ancestor referred to both the physical tongue and spoken language, reflecting an ancient belief that speech was literally produced by—and inseparable from—the tongue.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*dn̥ǵʰwéh₂
“Tongue; the organ used for speech”
Ancient Latin
Latin
lingua
“Tongue; language or speech”
9th–10th Century
Old French
lengue
“Tongue; language”
12th–13th Century
Anglo-Norman French
langue
“Tongue or language”
15th Century
English
langue
“A tongue or language, borrowed from French”
Modern English
English
langue
“A tongue, especially an animal tongue; also a French term meaning “language””