"lung" in seven languages
Meaninglung
Spanish
/pulˈmon/
masc.learned
Semi-learned: it keeps Latin's u where an inherited word would have o (Italian polmone).
French
/pumɔ̃/
masc.inherited
Italian
/polˈmone/
masc.inherited
Portuguese
/puwˈmɐ̃w/
masc.learned
plural: pulmões
Semi-learned, like Spanish pulmón: it keeps Latin's u.
Romanian
/pləˈmɨn/
masc.inherited
plural: plămâni
Catalan
/pulˈmo/
masc.learned
plural: pulmons
Semi-learned in shape, but it drops the final n like any Catalan -ó word (plural pulmons).
English
/lʌŋ/
native English · Old English lungen
The Latin ancestor
PULMŌNEM‘lung’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
French poumon turned the l into u and the final -on nasal; Catalan pulmó dropped the final n, which returns in the plural pulmons. Romanian plămân is the inherited word with Romanian's own vowels.
English relatives: pulmonary
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esFumar daña los pulmones.
- frFumer abîme les poumons.
- itIl fumo danneggia i polmoni.
- ptFumar faz mal aos pulmões.
- roFumatul dăunează plămânilor.
- caFumar perjudica els pulmons.
- enSmoking damages the lungs.