lin·go (l ng g )n. pl. lin·goes 1. Language that is unintelligible or unfamiliar. 2. The specialized vocabulary of a particular field or discipline: spoke to me in the lingo of fundamentalism. See Synonyms at dialect. [Probably from Portuguese lingoa, from Latin lingua, language; see d  gh - in Indo-European roots.]Word History: A look at the entry in the Indo-European roots entry for *d gh- will show that the words tongue, language, and lingo are related, all going back to the Indo-European root *dgh-, "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. |
lingo
Noun
pl -goes Informal any foreign or unfamiliar language or jargon [perhaps from lingua franca]
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
| Noun | 1. | lingo - a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves); "they don't speak our lingo" bite - a portion removed from the whole; "the government's weekly bite from my paycheck" swiz - British slang for a swindle shakedown - extortion of money (as by blackmail) power trip - (slang) a self-aggrandizing action undertaken simply for the pleasure of exercising control over other people fuck, fucking, nookie, nooky, piece of ass, piece of tail, roll in the hay, screwing, shtup, ass, shag, screw - slang for sexual intercourse blowjob, cock sucking - slang for fellatio dekko - British slang for a look square-bashing - drill on a barracks square shakedown - a very thorough search of a person or a place; "a shakedown by the police uncovered the drugs" caff - informal British term for a cafe deck - street name for a packet of illegal drugs Mickey Finn - slang term for knockout drops nick - (British slang) a prison; "he's in the nick" cert - an absolute certainty; "it's a dead cert" legs - staying power; "that old Broadway play really has legs" soup-strainer, toothbrush - slang for a mustache street name - slang for something (especially for an illegal drug); "`smack' is a street name for heroin" corker - (dated slang) a remarkable or excellent thing or person; "that story was a corker" baloney, bilgewater, boloney, bosh, drool, humbug, tommyrot, tosh, twaddle, taradiddle, tarradiddle - pretentious or silly talk or writing codswallop, folderol, trumpery, wish-wash, applesauce, tripe, rubbish, trash - nonsensical talk or writing skin flick - a pornographic movie dibs - a claim of rights; "I have dibs on that last slice of pizza" non-standard speech - speech that differs from the usual accepted, easily recognizable speech of native adult members of a speech community rhyming slang - slang that replaces words with rhyming words or expressions and then typically omits the rhyming component; "Cockney rhyming slang" burnup - a high-speed motorcycle race on a public road nosh-up - a large satisfying meal hood - (slang) a neighborhood 'hood - (slang) a neighborhood paleface - (slang) a derogatory term for a white person (supposedly used by North American Indians) poor white trash, white trash - (slang) an offensive term for White people who are impoverished |
lingo
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