Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “language” come from?

Language comes from Old French language, derived from Old French langue meaning "tongue," from Latin lingua, with the adjectival suffix -icus from Proto-Indo-European -kos.

language (English): A body of words, and set of methods of combining...

Definitions

  1. A body of words, and set of methods of combining...

Ancestry of “language”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishlangagelanguage, tongue, speech; dialect, idiom, local...
2Old Frenchlanguagelanguage
3Vulgar Latinlinguaticumlanguage
4Latinlinguatongue; a speech; an utterance or expression
5Latin-ularegō + API → rēgula; tegō + API → tēgula;...
6Proto-Indo-European-tlomAlternative form of *-trom
7Proto-Indo-European-tromForms nouns denoting a tool or instrument
8Proto-Indo-European-tḗrDerives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone...

Words derived from “language”

  • interlanguage
  • metalanguage
  • paralanguage
  • languaging
  • sublanguage
  • multilanguage
  • languaged
  • nonlanguage
  • languageless
  • antilanguage
  • unlanguaged
  • languagelike
  • translanguage
  • languagehood
  • counterlanguage
  • bilanguage
  • macrolanguage
  • metametalanguage
  • pseudolanguage
  • minilanguage
  • languager
  • overlanguaged
  • languagelessness
  • cyberlanguage
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tḗr →