language

Etymology 1

From Middle English langage, language, from Old French language, from Vulgar Latin *linguāticum, from Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”), from Old Latin dingua (“tongue”), from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s (“tongue, speech, language”). Displaced native Old English ġeþēode.

noun

1. (countable) A body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.
   The English language and the German language are related.
   Deaf and mute people communicate using languages like ASL.
   Hence the natural language of the mute is, in schools of this class, suppressed as soon and as far as possible, and its existence as a language, capable of being made the reliable and precise vehicle for the widest range of thought, is ignored. 1867, Report on the Systems of Deaf-Mute Instruction pursued in Europe, quoted in 1983 in History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907 →ISBN, page 240
   No language could express his rage and despair. 1900, William Beckford, The History of the Caliph Vathek, page 50
   Mr. Darko, generally acknowledged to be the last surviving member of the Ofo Tribe, was also the last remaining speaker of the tribe's language. 2000, Geary Hobson, The Last of the Ofos, page 113
2. (uncountable) The ability to communicate using words.
   the gift of language
   Language is the articulation of the limited to express the unlimited; it is the ultimate mystery which is the image of God, for in breaking up infinity to create finite beings, God has found a way to let the limited being yet be a reflection of His unlimited Being. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 15
3. (uncountable) A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.
   legal language; the language of chemistry
4. (countable, uncountable, figurative) The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.
   body language; the language of the eyes
   A tale about themselves [is] told by people with help from the universal languages of their eyes, their hands, and even their shirting feet. 2001, Eugene C. Kennedy, Sara C. Charles, On Becoming a Counselor
   Birding had become like that for me. It is a language that, once learnt, I have been unable to unlearn. 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 231
5. (countable, uncountable) A body of sounds, signs and/or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
   A more likely hypothesis was that the attacked leaves were transmitting some airborne chemical signal to sound the alarm, rather like insects sending out warnings […] But this is the first time that a plant-to-plant language has been detected. 1983, The Listener, volume 110, page 14
   Prairie dogs use their language to refer to real dangers in the real world, so it definitely has meaning. 2009, Animals in Translation, page 274
6. (computing, countable) A computer language; a machine language.
   In fact pointers are called references in these languages to distinguish them from pointers in languages like C and C++. 2015, Kent D. Lee, Foundations of Programming Languages, page 94
7. (uncountable) Manner of expression.
   1782, William Cowper, Hope Their language simple, as their manners meek, […]
8. (uncountable) The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.
   The language used in the law does not permit any other interpretation.
   The language he used to talk to me was obscene.
9. (uncountable) Profanity.
   "Where the hell is Horace?" ¶ "There he is. He's coming. You shouldn't use language." 1978, James Carroll, Mortal Friends, page 500

verb

1. (rare, now nonstandard or technical) To communicate by language; to express in language.

intj

1. An admonishment said in response to vulgar language.
   You're a pile of shit! Hey! Language!

Etymology 2

Alteration of languet.

noun

1. A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.
   A flue-pipe is one in which the air passes through the throat, or flue, which is the narrow, longitudinal aperture between the lower lip and the tongue, or language. […] The language is adjusted by slightly elevating or depressing it, […] 1896, William Horatio Clarke, The Organist's Retrospect Invalid ISBN, page 79