The corpus record — Latin

ligula

ligula · f

a little tongue

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

De agri cultura 3 · 1.92/10k
Poenulus 2 · 1.81/10k
Epigrammata 8 · 1.42/10k
Ars Amatoria 2 · 1.34/10k
De Re Coquinaria 2 · 1.28/10k
Florida 1 · 1.27/10k
De Architectura 7 · 1.21/10k
Peristephanon Liber 1 · 0.57/10k
Apologia 1 · 0.47/10k
Saturae 1 · 0.4/10k
Noctes Atticae 3 · 0.27/10k
Res Rustica, Books I-IX 2 · 0.25/10k

Densest 12 of 13 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. lĭgŭla — Lewis & Short

lĭgŭla and lingŭla (v. infra), ae, f.dim.from lingua: quamvis me ligulam dicant Equitesque Patresque, Dicor ab indoctis lingula grammaticis, Mart. 14, 120,

I a little tongue; hence, transf.

I A tongue of land: oppida posita in extremis lingulis promontoriisque, Caes. B. G. 3, 12.—

II The tongue of a shoe, a shoe-strap, shoe-latchet: lingula per diminutionem linguae dicta; alias a similitudine linguae exsertae, ut in calceis, alias insertae, id est intra dentes coërcitae, ut in tibiis, Paul. ex Fest. p. 116 Müll.: habet Trebius, propter quod rumpere somnum debeat et ligulas dimittere, Juv. 5, 20; Mart. 2, 29, 7.—As a term of reproach: ligula, i in malam crucem, Plaut. Poen. 5, 5, 30.—

III A spoon or ladle for skimming a pot, a skimmer: isque (musteus fructus) saepius ligula purgandus est, Col. 9, 5 fin.—For taking out and dropping aromatic essences: inde lingulis eligunt florem, Plin. 21, 14, 49, § 84.—For preserves, Cato, R. R. 84.—

B As a measure, a spoonful: duarum aut trium lingularum mensura, Plin. 20, 5, 18, § 36.—

IV A small sword, Naev. ap. Gell. 10, 25, 3; ct. Varr. L. L. 7, § 107 Müll.—

V The tongue or reed of a flute, Plin. 16, 36, 66, § 171; cf. under II. the passage cited from Paul. ex Fest. p. 116 Müll.—

VI The pointed end of a post or stake, which was inserted into something, a tongue, tenon: lingulae edolatae, Col. 8, 11, 4.—

VII The short arm of a lever, which is placed under the weight to be raised: si sub onus vectis lingula subjecta fuerit, Vitr. 10, 8.—

VIII The tongueshaped extremity of a water-pipe, by which it is fitted into another, Vitr. 8, 7.—

IX The tongue of a scale-beam: examen est ligula et lignum, quod mediam hastam ad pondera adaequanda tenet, Schol. ad Pers. 1, 6.—

X A tongue-shaped member of the cuttle-fish: loliginum ligulas, App. Mag. p. 297, 5.

2. ligula — Walde–Hofmann

ligula, -ae f. „Löffel“ (infolge Grammatikerschrullen in Beziehung auf lingo. auch lingula, wie umgekehrt lingula „kleine Zunge“, dann von zungenförmigen Gegenständen wie „kleiner Degen“ [Naev., 8. Varro 1.1.7, 107], „Landzunge, Schuhriemen* wenigstens in letzterer Bed. infolge Herleitung von ligare auch in der Form ligula gebraucht ligurriö — lima. 801 wurde [vgl. auch Zigular Gl. V 218, 5 für lingulati Isid. 19, … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. ligula, p. 832]

In the wild

ligulae Apuleius, Florida 9.p2
lingula Vitruvius, De Architectura 9.8.13
lingula Cato, De agri cultura 84
ligula Prudentius, Peristephanon Liber 10.978
Lingula Ovid, Ars Amatoria 1.515
lingula Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 10.25.3

6 of 36 attestations shown.

Where it came from

Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. ligula (scan pp. 832-833; entry #1544). Root candidates: *leigh-.

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.