English
ligula
Ligula comes from Latin ligula ‘strap, spoon’, and goes back to lingula ‘small tongue-shaped object’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElingula‘small tongue-shaped object’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEligula‘strap, spoon’variant of lingula
- Englishearliest quotation 1974same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElingula‘small tongue-shaped object’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEligula‘strap, spoon’variant of lingula
- Englishearliest quotation 1974same form
Earliest quotation: 1974, Guy Davenport: “He unhasped the ligulae of his haversack, taking out…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s ‘tongue’
through Latin dingua ‘pre-classical form of lingua’
linguistics, sublingual, langue, 18 more
through Latin lingua ‘tongue’
language, lang, linguistic, bilingual, lingo, linguist, lingual, lingua, linguine, 21 more
through Latin lingō ‘lick’
Today it means
noun A strap or strap-shaped object, especially such a development in plants or insects.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin lingula / ligula