lung

noun
/ˈlʌŋ/UK/lʊŋ/

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 Superseded non-native Middle English pomoun (“lung”), borrowed from Old French poumon, pomon (“lung”).

  1. derived from *h₁lengʷʰ-
  2. inherited from *lunganjō
  3. inherited from lungen
  4. inherited from lunge

Definitions

  1. A biological organ of vertebrates that controls breathing and oxygenates the blood.

  2. Capacity for exercise or exertion

    Capacity for exercise or exertion; breath.

    • He no longer has the lungs to play long rallies like he used to.
  3. That which supplies oxygen or fresh air, such as trees, parklands, forest, etc., to a…

    That which supplies oxygen or fresh air, such as trees, parklands, forest, etc., to a place.

  4. + 1 more definition
    1. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at lung. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01lung02fresh03green04golf05hit06lights07lungs

A definitional loop anchored at lung. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at lung

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA