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lingua fran·ca

(frăngkə)

n. pl. lingua fran·cas (-kəz) also linguae fran·cae (frăngkē, frănsē)

1. A medium of communication between peoples of different languages.

2. A mixture of Italian with Provençal, French, Spanish, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish, formerly spoken on the eastern Mediterranean coast.

[Italian : lingua, language + franca, Frankish (that is, European).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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