subs. (colloquial).—A foreign language; unintelligible speech.
1699. CONGREVE, The Way of the World, iv. 4. I shall understand your LINGO one of these days, Cousin: in the mean while I must answer in plain English.
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, iii. 100. We teach them their LINGUA, to crave and to cant.
1749. FIELDING, Tom Jones, Bk. VI. ch. ii. I have often warned you not to talk the court gibberish to me. I tell you, I don’t understand the LINGO; but I can read a journal, or the ‘London Evening Post.’
1775. SHERIDAN, St. Patrick’s Day, i. i. He’s a gentleman of words; he understands your foreign LINGO.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1833. MARRYAT, Peter Simple, I. xviii. Recollect that I cannot speak a word of their LINGO.
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard, Pt. i. ch. 2. It’s plain he don’t understand our LINGO.
1857. THACKERAY, The Four Georges (George I.). He recited a portion of the Swedish Catechism to his Most Christian Majesty and his Court, not one of whom understood his LINGO.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
1883. W. C. RUSSELL, Sailors’ Language, s.v. LINGO.—Sailor’s name for a language he does not understand.
1888. BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, viii. Droll LINGO, wasn’t it?
1892. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 60. I can’t git the ’ang of his LINGO.
