languet

languet

English

Etymology

From Old French languete (modern French languette), diminutive of langue (“tongue”), from Latin lingua.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlæŋɡwɪt/

Noun

languet (plural languets)

1. A tongue-shaped implement, specifically:
   1. A narrow blade on the edge of a spade or shovel.
   2. A piece of metal on a sword-hilt which overhangs the scabbard.
   3. A flat plate in (or opposite and below the mouth of) the pipe of an organ.

      • 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:

        If there is music for this it’s windy strings and reed sections standing in bright shirt fronts and black ties all along the beach, a robed organist by the breakwater—itself broken, crusted with tides—whose languets and flues gather and shape the resident spooks here.

2. (archaic) A narrow tongue of land.
3. (zoology) A tongue-like organ found on certain tunicates.

Synonyms

• (flat plate in an organ): language, languid

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Latin

Verb

languet

1. third-person singular present active indicative of langueō