Pl. lingulæ. [L., dim. of lingua tongue. Cf. LIGULA.]
1. A little tongue or tongue-like part.
Now only spec. in Anat., short for various mod.L. names of structures, as l. fistulæ (the epiglottis), l. cerebelli, etc.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, xvi. (1679), 74. They … make the Incision with a Chisel in the Body very neatly, in which they stick a Leaf of the Tree, as a lingula to direct it into the appendent Vessel.
a. 1734. North, Life of Guilford (1742), 298. The ingenious Mr. Hook put this Scheme of Musick into Clockwork, and made Wheels, with small Lingulæ in the Manner of Cogs.
1889. in Syd. Soc. Lex.
2. A genus of bivalve mollusks, including many fossil species; any shell of the genus.
Lingula flags, micaceous flagstones and slates of N. Wales, containing the lingula in large quantities.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 313/2. Lingula has been found in a fossil state in the inferior oolite of Yorkshire.
1851–6. Woodward, Mollusca, 240. Observations on the living Lingula are much wanted.
1873. Dawson, Earth & Man, iii. 39. The Lingulæ, from the abundance of which some of the Primordial beds have received in England and Wales the name of Lingula flags.
