different between language vs prose

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

Used in English since 1330, from French prose, from Latin pr?sa (“straightforward”) from the term pr?sa ?r?ti? (“a straightforward speech- i.e. without the ornaments of verse”). The term pr?sa (“straightforward”) is a colloquial form of prorsa (“straight forwards”) which is the feminine form of prorsus (“straight forwards”), from Old Latin pr?vorsus (“moving straight ahead”), from pro- (“forward”) + vorsus (“turned”), form of vert? (“I turn”). Compare verse.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p???z/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p?o?z/
• Rhymes: -??z
• Homophone: pros

Noun

prose (usually uncountable, plural proses)

1. Language, particularly written language, not intended as poetry.

   Though known mostly for her prose, she also produced a small body of excellent poems.
2. Language which evinces little imagination or animation; dull and commonplace discourse.
3. (Roman Catholicism) A hymn with no regular meter, sometimes introduced into the Mass.

Antonyms

• poetry, verse

Derived terms

• prose poem
• prosewise
• purple prose

Related terms

• prosaic
• prosody

Translations

Verb

prose (third-person singular simple present proses, present participle prosing, simple past and past participle prosed)

1. To write or repeat in a dull, tedious, or prosy way.
   • 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, Act I, Scene II, verses 189-190

     Pray, do not prose, good Ethelbert, but speak;

     What is your purpose?

References

• prose in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• OPers., Peros, Perso-, S'pore, Soper, Spero, opers, pores, poser, preso, reops, repos, ropes, soper, spore

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?pros?]
• Rhymes: -?s?

Noun

prose

1. locative singular of proso

Verb

prose

1. masculine singular present transgressive of prosit

Related terms

• prosíc
• poprosiv
• prosící

French

Etymology

From Latin pr?sa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?oz/
• Homophone: proses

Noun

prose f (plural proses)

1. prose

Derived terms

• faire de la prose sans le savoir
• prosateur
• proser

Verb

prose

1. inflection of proser:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• perso, pores, poser, repos

Italian

Noun

prose f

1. plural of prosa

Anagrams

• perso, porse, preso, spero, sperò, spore

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *pors?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pr?s?/, [?pr?s?]

Noun

prose n (genitive prose?a, dual prose?i, plural proseta)

1. piglet

Declension

Further reading

• prose in Ernst Muka/Mucke (St. Petersburg and Prague 1911–28): S?ownik dolnoserbskeje r?cy a jeje nar?cow / Wörterbuch der nieder-wendischen Sprache und ihrer Dialekte. Reprinted 2008, Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
• prose in Manfred Starosta (1999): Dolnoserbsko-nimski s?ownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch. Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag.