(lĭngˈgō)
noun pl. lin·goes - Language that is unintelligible or unfamiliar.
- The specialized vocabulary of a particular field or discipline: spoke to me in the lingo of fundamentalism. See Synonyms at dialect.
Word History: A look at the entry in the Indo-European roots entry for
*dṇghū- will show that the words
tongue, language, and
lingo are related, all going back to the Indo-European root
*dṇghū-, “tongue.” The relationship between
language and
lingo is not particularly surprising given their related meanings and common root, but one might be curious about the routes by which these two words came into English.
Language, as did so many of our important borrowings from Latin, passed through French into English during the Middle Ages, the forms involved being Latin
lingua, “language,” its descendant, Old French
langue, and its derivative,
langage. Lingo, on the other hand, entered English after the end of the Middle Ages when Europe had opened itself to the larger world. We have probably borrowed
lingo from
lingoa, a Portuguese descendant of Latin
lingua. The Portuguese were great traders before the English were, and the sense “foreign language” was likely strengthened as the Portuguese traveled around the world. Interestingly enough, the first recorded instance of
lingo in English is in the New World (1660) in a reference to the “Dutch lingo.” The development in sense to “unintelligible language” and “specialized language” is an obvious one.
