Lingua Franca

See also: lingua franca and língua franca

English

Etymology

See lingua franca.

Proper noun

Lingua Franca

1. (historical, archaic) Sabir, the Italian-based pidgin that served as a common language of Mediterranean trade around the 11th-19th centuries.

   Synonym: Mediterranean Lingua Franca

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Emperor of Lilliput, Attended by Several of the Nobility, Come to See the Author in His Confinement. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), page 30:

     There were ſeveral of his Prieſts and Lawyers preſent, (as I conjectured by their habits) who were commanded to addreſs themſelves to me, and I ſpoke to them in as many Languages as I had the leaſt ſmattering of, which were High and Low Dutch, Latin, French, Spaniſh, Italian, and Lingua Franca; but all to no purpoſe.

   • 1864, J.C. Hotten, The Slang Dictionary, section 22:

     ...the Lingua Franca, or bastard Italian, spoken at Genoa, Trieste, Malta, Constantinople, Smyrna, Alexandria, and all Mediterranean seaport towns. The ingredients of this imported Cant are many. Its foundation is Italian, with a mixture of modern Greek, German, (from the Austrian ports,) Spanish, Turkish, and French.

   • 1961, Eric Partridge, The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang:

     ...tusheroon and its C.20 variant tossaroon (2s. 6d.) are manifest corruptions of Lingua Franca MADZA CAROON.

Usage notes

• Formerly the language's most common English name, Lingua Franca is now usually referred to as Sabir or the Mediterranean Lingua Franca in order to avoid confusion with the generic term lingua franca.
• Traditionally, not prefaced by "the".

Further reading

• Mediterranean Lingua Franca on Wikipedia.Wikipedia