a. (sb.) [ad. mod.L. sublinguālis: see SUB- 1 a, b and LINGUAL. Cf. F. sublingual (from 16th c.), etc.] A. adj.
† 1. Med. Of a pill, etc.: That is placed under the tongue to be sucked. Obs.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 515. Sublinguale troches.
1666. G. Harvey, Morbus Angl. (1672), 114. Those subliming humours ought … to be intercepted … by sublingual Pills.
2. Anat. Situated under the tongue or on the under-side of the tongue. Also, belonging to the sublingua.
Sublingual gland, the smallest salivary gland situated between the tongue on either side of the floor of the mouth. So s. artery, supplying the s. gland, side of the tongue, etc.; s. cyst, due to obstruction of the s. gland, etc., = RANULA; s. fossa, which lodges the s. gland. S. nerve = HYPOGLOSSAL nerve.
1694. Phil. Trans., XVIII. 229. [The use of the Musculus Mylohyoideus … in Compressing its subjacent sublingual Glands. Ibid. (1720), XXXI. 7. The Buccal, Labial, internal Maxillar, and sublingual Glands, are of a yellow Colour.
1831. R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 653. The Sublingual Artery, which is sometimes a division of the submental.
1836–9. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., II. 214/1. A depression (sublingual fossa) for the reception of the sublingual gland.
1872. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., 256, marg. Sebaceous sublingual cysts.
1875. Encycl. Brit., II. 165/1. In that genus [Hylobates] we first meet with a sub-lingual process (which becomes much larger in the lower apes).
1890. Billings, Nat. Med. Dict., Sublingual caruncle, the papilla at which Wharton’s duct opens, behind lower incisor teeth.
B. sb. A sublingual gland, artery, etc.
1720. Phil. Trans., XXXI. 7. They are as distinct from the Buccal, as the Sublinguals are from the internal Maxillars.
1840. G. V. Ellis, Anat., 182. One or two of them [sc. arteries] perforate the mylo-hyoid muscle, to anastomose with the sublingual.
