A good tongue is a good weapon.

Under the tongue men are crushed to death.

The tongue breaks bone, and herself has none.

The tongue stings.

The tongue is more venomous than a serpent's sting.

The tongue is not steel yet it cuts.

It is a good tongue that says no ill, and a better heart that thinks none.

What the heart thinks, the tongue speaks.

It is better to play with the ears than the tongue.

The tongue of idle persons is never still.

A woman's sword is her tongue, and she does not let it rust.

A woman's strength is in her tongue.

A woman's tongue is the last thing about her that dies.

He speaks with a forked tongue.
Better to slip with the foot than with the tongue.

1. A body part: a freely movable muscular organ lying partly in the floor of the mouth and partly in the pharynx.

Its function is the manipulation of food in mastication and deglutition.

2. It is also very often a reference to speech production; such as, the power of speech or articulation; a manner or style of speaking; and a language, vernacular, or dialect.

For more extensive information about the various applications of this term, visit this Tongue: Body Part and Language unit and the Tongue: How it Works unit.

1. A muscular organ on the floor of the mouth which aids in chewing, swallowing, and speech, and is the location of the taste buds, the organs of the sense of taste.

The taste buds are located in the papillae (puh PILL ee), which are projections, or bumps, on the upper surface of the tongue that sense flavors; such as, bitter, sweet, salty, and sour.

2. The movable fleshy organ attached to the bottom of the inside of the mouth of humans and most animals, used for tasting, licking, swallowing, and, in humans, speech.

As stated previously, the tongue is a strong muscle anchored to the floor of the mouth. It is covered by the lingual membrane which has special areas to detect tastes.

The tongue is attached to the lower jaw and to the hyoid bone (a small, U-shaped bone that lies deep in the muscles at the back of the tongue) above the larynx.

Again, as defined above, on the top surface of the tongue there are small nodules called papillae that give the tongue its rough texture.

Between the papillae at the sides and base of the tongue, there are small bulb-like structures that are the taste buds. The muscle fibers of the tongue are heavily supplied with nerves.

The tongue aids in the formation of the sounds of speech and coordinates its movements to aid in swallowing.

The adjective for tongue is "lingual"; so, the papillae of the tongue are the lingual papillae.

A small lizard generally measuring six or seven inches and which has a tongue several inches longer than its body.

With a thrust of its tongue appendage, it can catch insects some ten inches away.

To be immediately sorry for what one has said. When Irene realized that Henry heard the negative things that she had said about him, she could have bitten her tongue off.

When someone is not able or willing to talk because of shyness: The young boy had a speech to make, but apparently the cat got his tongue because he could not deliver his message.

Used to ask a person why he or she is not responding or saying anything: "You have been unusually quiet during the meeting," Monroe said. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

To be able to speak; especially, after a period during which one has been too afraid or too modest to talk: Shirley found her tongue agaom after she left the classroom at school with her mother.

The frenulum that attaches the lower side of the tongue to the floor of the buccal (cheek) cavity.

At birth, this may be tight, a condition called "tongue-tie".

To talk deceitfully, to prevaricate, or to lie: When Jake said he had to stay home because he was sick, then went to a movie, he was speaking with a forked tongue.

To be silent; to keep still; not talking. Calvin's mother told him to hold his tongue when he started to talk back to her after she scolded him for doing something wrong.

To be polite ad to be respectful when talking to someone: The bus driver was yelling at the woman and she told him to keep a civil tongue in his head.

To be so embarrassed, or surprised, that one cannot talk; or to lose the capacity to speak because of some kind of shock: Sharon would always lose her tongue when she had to explain her reason for not eating meat.

Almost able to say something; at the point of being said: Jerry told his sister, "I have the word on the tip of my tongue."

The tendency to be bad-tempered or sarcastic in speech: Hank couldn't tolerate his wife's sharp tongue any longer; so, he was thinking of leaving her.

The mistake of saying something that a person had not wanted or planned to say; an error of speech: Herb would not have known Shirley's secret if she had not made a slip of the tongue.

The human tongue and its functions

About the only interest a person has in the tongue is when something abnormal happens; such as, when there is pain or if some unusual taste factor exists as when there is burning from excessive heat, when accidentally bitten, or when exposed to strong flavors which are spicy, bitter, sweet, sour, etc.

Since the human tongue usually stays out of sight, it is is not considered as valuable as other sensory parts of the body, but if people think they can get along without their tongues, they should re-evaluate this misconception.

For example, when a person extends the tongue out of the mouth and lightly clamps on it between the teeth, then if that person tries to talk, let him/her see if speech under such circumstance can be understood.

A tongue is particularly important with the mastication, or chewing, of food by rolling it around in the mouth so such materials are evenly broken up and made more acceptable to the stomach for digestion. A tongue assists in swallowing when the front part presses against the hard palate in the roof of the mouth. This is followed by having the back part of the tongue hump up, thrusting food into the passage that leads to the esophagus.

Although it may seem to be a simple activity, it is really a necessary function that is conducted by nerves and executed by intricate muscles. A person usually knows how to swallow before being born, which is an indication of how important the swallowing reflex is to one's existence.

Speaking is another consideration because a person must be trained for such extraordinary neuromuscular activities. A baby normally experiments with sounds for two, or more, years before being able to form simple sentences. As people get older, the tongue is able to flex itself into many various shapes for more complex expressions.

Anyone who would like to get a better idea of the tongue's complex activities should concentrate on its various movements while talking.

A slab of mucous membrane enclosing a complex array of muscles and nerves

The upper surface of the tongue has an array of papillae (puh PIL lee), or tiny projections, some of which contain taste buds. Also, arranged among the taste buds are taste cells, which actually receive the sensations of taste.

On the underside of the tongue is a tiny cord, the frenulum, and if it is too short, it holds back normal movements which is known as being "tongue-tied". People with this problem once went through their lives with garbled speech; however, today, this defect can be corrected with surgery.

The tongue is an organ that gives people a great deal of service but too often it is held in low esteem. Normally, people pay less attention to the tongue than they do to their hair or fingernails which are not nearly as important to their well-being.

Despite such neglect, the tongue usually continues to tirelessly function as it tastes and talks throughout our lives.

More facts about the tongue

The tongue has about 10,000 taste receptors.

• They are called taste buds, but "taste hairs" would be a more accurate name in that these receptors project like hairs from the walls of the tiny trenches that run between the bumps on your tongue.
• When you eat, the receptors send signals to the brain, which translates the signals into combinations of sweet, bitter, salty, and sour tastes.

Newborn babies have few taste buds.

• Soon after birth, more buds begin to grow, an by early childhood they cover the top and some of the bottom of the tongue, as well as areas in the cheeks and throat.
• Since young children have many more taste buds blooming in their mouths than adults, they frequently find foods to be too bitter or too spicy.
• Some adults seek out bitter or spicy foods because of a declining number of taste buds.
• In children and adults, each taste bud lives a matter of days before it is replaced.

Different parts of the tongue are sensitive to different tastes.

• The four primary tastes; such as, sweet, bitter, salty, and sour, are each associated with a specific area on the tongue.
• The tip of the tongue is most sensitive to sweet and salty tastes, while sour seems to register more strongly on the sides of the tongue.
• Far to the rear of the tongue, grouped in a V-shape, are most of the receptors for bitter tastes.

The taste buds account for less than twenty percent of the flavors of food.

• The sense of smell, with its own separate receptors, mostly determines what we experience as taste.
• The temperature and texture of food also contribute to its overall flavor.
• Oddly one's sensitivity to saltiness and bitterness seems to increase as food cools, sensitivity to sweetness increases with heat.
• A piece of chocolate may have very little taste when cold, taste fine at room temperature, but seem unpleasantly sweet when hot and half-melted.

To say something that one does not intend to be taken seriously or to be true: Mike told his girlfriend, with tongue in cheek, that she had just won the lottery.

The word "language" literally comes from a Latin word lingua which means "tongue". The Greek stem is glosso- and glotto- which stand for both "language" and "tongue".

Language is used in several thousand forms and dialects expressing all kinds of views, literatures, and ways of life. If we look to the past, we can only see as far back as language lets us see it. As we look to the future, we can only plan through the means of language.

Etymology: Old English tunge, "organ of speech, speech, language"; from Proto-Germanic (a hypothetical prehistoric ancestor of all Germanic languages, including English) tungon, Old High German zunga; German Zunge; comparable to Latin lingua, "tongue, speech, language"; from Old Latin dingua.

A sharp scolding or criticism: Michael was given a tongue-lashing for spilling milk all over the floor. © ALL rights are reserved.

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To be slow or unable to speak because of bashfulness, nervousness, or some physical malformation: Joel was tongue-tied when he was introduced to the beautiful girl.

A word or group of words which are difficult to pronounce or to say: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers," is a well-known tongue twister.