Mind Your Tongue

 

Can there be any better word to describe, in its very being, the English language than “tongue”?

In order to qualify for this honor, the word would have to have several overlapping meanings across many disciplines, be at least a verb and a noun, and be spelled incomprehensibly.

The answer then, is yes.

It means both the organ of speech and an entire language. As a verb, to tongue something means to lick it. To lick also means “to drive out” or defeat, which is another old meaning for “tongue.” To hold your tongue means to stop speaking, not literally to hold your tongue. To be tongue-tied is to be unable to produce speech.

Geographically, a tongue is a protrusion of a glacier into the sea. A shoe has a tongue-shaped tongue which lies under the laces, which you must pull on to fasten your shoe.

Yet the word itself is spelled t-o-n-g-u-e, which one might pronounce ton-gew, rather than tung. A Tung is a deciduous tree native to China.

The finished dish

I wonder if our modern aversion to eating tongue is due to the fact that we do not like to bite our own tongues, and that it looks rather a lot like a penis?

Salads, Time-Life Books, 1979

Also from this book: Eat Your Vegetables, Jellied Salad

Where The Wild Recipes Are

Max’s Mom said “Max, it’s dinner time; wash your hands and come to the table.”

And Max washed his hands and face and came to the table. He asked his Mom what was for dinner and she said “Brain and Tongue Pudding. Sit down.”

But Max did not want Brain and Tongue Pudding, and threw himself upon the floor in a fit. His Mom said “Maximillian, get up this instant and sit at the table.”

“No!” Shouted Max.

So his Mom said “up to your room you go. No dinner for you.” Max quit his writhing and went up to his room and sat on his bed. Brain and Tongue Pudding? he thought to himself. How can grown-ups even think up such monstrous things?

“And the wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws.”

Mrs. Beeton’s Everyday Cookery

Martha's Sweet and Sour Tongue

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