lung
/ˈlʌŋ/ noun, proper noun
Also a form of long
Forms lungs
- noun (anatomy) A biological organ of vertebrates that controls breathing and oxygenates the blood.
- noun (in the plural) Capacity for exercise or exertion; breath. “He no longer has the lungs to play long rallies like he used to.”
- noun That which supplies oxygen or fresh air, such as trees, parklands, forest, etc., to a place.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English lunge, longe, from Old English lungen, from Proto-Germanic *lunganjō, an enlargement of *lungô (“the light organ, lung”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ-, whence ultimately also light. Cognate with West Frisian long, Dutch long, German Lunge, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk lunge, Swedish lunga, Icelandic lunga, and also Russian лёгкое (ljóxkoje) (lung), Ancient Greek ἐλαφρός (elaphrós, “light in weight”) and perhaps Albanian lungë (“blister, bulge”). Compare Latin levis and Old English lēoht (Modern English light). See also lights (“lungs”). Superseded non-native Middle English pomoun (“lung”), borrowed from Old French poumon, pomon (“lung”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun An organ for aërial respiration; --commonly in the plural.
Etymology [OE. lunge, AS. lunge, pl. lungen; akin to D. long, G. lunge, Icel. & Sw. lunga, Dan. lunge, all prob. from the root of E. light. See Light not heavy.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “lung”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details