different between language vs afar

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: l?ng?gw?j, IPA^(key): /?læ??w?d??/
  • (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): (see /æ/ raising) [?le???w?d??]
• Hyphenation: lan?guage

Etymology 1

From Middle English langage, language, from Old French language, from Vulgar Latin *lingu?ticum, from Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”), from Old Latin dingua (“tongue”), from Proto-Indo-European *dn???wéh?s (“tongue, speech, language”). Displaced native Old English ?eþ?ode.

Noun

language (countable and uncountable, plural languages)

1. (countable) A body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.
   • 1867, Report on the Systems of Deaf-Mute Instruction pursued in Europe, quoted in 1983 in History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907 ?ISBN, page 240:

     Hence the natural language of the mute is, in schools of this class, suppressed as soon and as far as possible, and its existence as a language, capable of being made the reliable and precise vehicle for the widest range of thought, is ignored.
2. (uncountable) The ability to communicate using words.

3. (uncountable) A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 35:

     And ‘blubbing’... Blubbing went out with ‘decent’ and ‘ripping’. Mind you, not a bad new language to start up. Nineteen-twenties schoolboy slang could be due for a revival.

4. (countable, uncountable, figuratively) The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.
   • 2001, Eugene C. Kennedy, Sara C. Charles, On Becoming a Counselor ?ISBN:

     A tale about themselves [is] told by people with help from the universal languages of their eyes, their hands, and even their shirting feet.
5. (countable, uncountable) A body of sounds, signs and/or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
   • 1983, The Listener, volume 110, page 14:

     A more likely hypothesis was that the attacked leaves were transmitting some airborne chemical signal to sound the alarm, rather like insects sending out warnings […] But this is the first time that a plant-to-plant language has been detected.

   • 2009, Animals in Translation, page 274:

     Prairie dogs use their language to refer to real dangers in the real world, so it definitely has meaning.

6. (computing, countable) A computer language; a machine language.
   • 2015, Kent D. Lee, Foundations of Programming Languages ?ISBN, page 94

     In fact pointers are called references in these languages to distinguish them from pointers in languages like C and C++.

7. (uncountable) Manner of expression.
   • 1782, William Cowper, Hope

     Their language simple, as their manners meek, […]

8. (uncountable) The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.

9. (uncountable) Profanity.

Synonyms

• (form of communication): see Thesaurus:language
• (vocabulary of a particular field): see Thesaurus:jargon
• (computer language): computer language, programming language, machine language
• (particular words used): see Thesaurus:wording

Hypernyms

• medium

Hyponyms

• See Category:en:Languages

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

language (third-person singular simple present languages, present participle languaging, simple past and past participle languaged)

1. (rare, now nonstandard or technical) To communicate by language; to express in language.

   • Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense.

See also

• bilingual
• lexis
• linguistics
• multilingual
• term
• trilingual
• word

Etymology 2

Alteration of languet.

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.

References

• language at OneLook Dictionary Search
• language in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• language in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. Archaic spelling of langage.

Middle English

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. Alternative form of langage

Middle French

Alternative forms

• langage
• langaige
• languaige

Etymology

From Old French language.

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Related terms

• langue

Descendants

• French: langage
  • Haitian Creole: langaj
    • ? English: langaj
  • Mauritian Creole: langaz

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *lingu?ticum, from Classical Latin lingua (“tongue, language”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lan??ad???/

Noun

language f (oblique plural languages, nominative singular language, nominative plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Related terms

• langue, lingue

Descendants

• ? Middle English: language
  • English: language
• Middle French: language
  • French: langage
    • Haitian Creole: langaj
      • ? English: langaj
    • Mauritian Creole: langaz
• ? Old Spanish: lenguage

English

Etymology

From Middle English afer, equivalent to a- (“for, on, or of”) +? far.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /??fa?/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /??f??/

Adverb

afar

1. At, to, or from a great distance; far away.

   He was seen from afar.

   He loved her from afar.

Usage notes

• Often used with from preceding, or formerly with off following.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:afar.

Translations

Anagrams

• AFRA, FARA, Fara, RAAF, RAFA

Chuukese

Noun

afar

1. shoulder (of humans and animals)

Finnish

Noun

afar

1. Afar (language).
2. An Afar (person).

Declension

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.fa?/

Noun

afar m (uncountable)

1. Afar (language)

   L'afar est parlé par 1,5 millions de locuteurs.

Adjective

afar (feminine singular afare, masculine plural afars, feminine plural afares)

1. Related to the Afar people.

   Les nomades afars.

   Les tribus afares.

Further reading

• “afar” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Gothic

Romanization

afar

1. Romanization of ????????????????

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse afar, from Proto-Germanic *abraz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a?var/
• Rhymes: -a?var

Adverb

afar (not comparable)

1. very, immensely, ever so, highly, most

Noun

afar

1. indefinite nominative plural of afi

Further reading

• afar in Icelandic dictionaries at ISLEX
• afar in Hólmarsson et al.: Íslensk-ensk orðabók. 1989.

Anagrams

• fara

Italian

Noun

afar m (uncountable)

1. Afar (language)

Anagrams

• farà

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

afar m (definite singular afaren, indefinite plural afarer, definite plural afarene)

1. Afar (language)

   Afar er et kusjittisk språk som snakkes i Afar i Etiopia. (Norwegian Bokmål Wikipedia)

   Afar is a Cushitic language spoken in Afar in Ethiopia.

2. Afar (ethnic group)
3. Afar (region)

Usage notes

This is word is only inflected when used in its second sense.

References

• “afar” in The Ordnett Dictionary

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

afar m (definite singular afaren, indefinite plural afarar, definite plural afarane)

1. Afar (language)
2. Afar (ethnic group)
3. Afar (region)

Usage notes

This is word is only inflected when used in its second sense.

Old Norse

Adverb

afar

1. used as an intensive before an adjective or another adverb; very, exceedingly

References

• afar in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Portuguese

Noun

afar m (plural afar)

1. (uncountable) Afar (language)
2. one of the Afar, a people of eastern Africa

Somali

Numeral

afar

1. four

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a?fa?/, [a?fa?]

Noun

afar m (uncountable)

1. Afar (language)

Swedish

Noun

afar ?

1. the Afar language

Synonyms

• afariska

Anagrams

• fara