linguistic

Definition

Of or relating to language.

Etymology

Borrowed from German linguistisch, equivalent to linguist + -ic. Compare linguistics. Ultimately from Latin lingua (“tongue, language”). Attested in English since 1825.

Example Sentences

• "Along with the Hebrew language, the grammatical knowledge of which was greatly advanced by him, he now devoted himself to the study of a variety of languages[…] In the year 1800 he was invited to go to Halle as an ordinary professor of theology and Oriental literature. Without giving up his linguistic studies, he now devoted considerable time to the critical examination of the early books of the Old Testament,"
• "Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths."
• "We have argued that the ability to make judgments about well-formedness and structure holds at all four major linguistic levels — Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, and Semantics."

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