Syn. -- Speech; tongue; idiom; dialect; phraseology; diction;
discourse; conversation; talk. -- Language, Speech, Tongue, Idiom,
Dialect. Language is generic, denoting, in its most extended use, any
mode of conveying ideas; speech is the language of articulate sounds;
tongue is the Anglo-Saxon term for language, esp. for spoken language;
as, the English tongue. Idiom denotes the forms of construction
peculiar to a particular language; dialects are varieties of expression
which spring up in different parts of a country among people speaking
substantially the same language.
Lan"guage, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Languaged (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Languaging (?).] To communicate by language; to express in language.
Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a
double sense.
Fuller.
Lan"guaged (?), a. Having a language; skilled in language; -- chiefly
used in composition. " Many-languaged nations." Pope.
Lan"guage*less (?), a. Lacking or wanting language; speechless; silent.
Shak.
Langued (?), a. [F. langue tongue. See Language.] (Her.) Tongued;
having the tongue visible.
Lions . . . represented as armed and langued gules.
Cussans.
||Langue` d'oc" (?). [F., language of oc yes.] The dialect, closely
||akin to French, formerly spoken south of the Loire (in which the word
||for "yes" was oc); Provençal.
||
||Langue` d'oïl" (?). [F., language of oïl yes.] The dialect formerly
||spoken north of the Loire (in which the word for "yes" was oïl, F.
||oui).
||
||Lan*guen"te (?), adv. [It., p. pr. of languire. See Languish.] (Mus.)
||In a languishing manner; pathetically.
||
Lan"guet, n. [F. languette, dim. of langue tongue, L. lingua.] 1.
Anything resembling the tongue in form or office; specif., the slip of
metal in an organ pipe which turns the current of air toward its mouth.
2. That part of the hilt, in certain kinds of swords, which overlaps
the scabbard.
Lan"guid (?), a. [L. languidus, fr. languere to be faint or languid:
cf. F. languide. See Languish.]
1. Drooping or flagging from exhaustion; indisposed to exertion;
without animation; weak; weary; heavy; dull. " Languid, powerless
limbs. " Armstrong.
Fire their languid souls with Cato's virtue.
Addison.