Original Word: γλῶσσα
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: glóssa
Pronunciation: GLOHS-sah
Phonetic Spelling: (gloce-sah')
Definition: Tongue, Language
Meaning: the tongue, a language, a nation (usually distinguished by their speech).

Word Origin: Derived from a root word meaning "tongue" or "language."

Corresponding Greek / Hebrew Entries: - H3956 (לָשׁוֹן, lashon): Refers to the tongue or language, similar to "glóssa" in its dual meaning of the physical organ and speech.

Usage: The Greek word "glóssa" primarily refers to the physical organ, the tongue, but it is also used metaphorically to denote language or speech. In the New Testament, "glóssa" is often associated with the miraculous gift of speaking in tongues, a spiritual gift where believers speak in languages they have not learned, as a sign of the Holy Spirit's presence and power.

Cultural and Historical Background: In the Greco-Roman world, the tongue was seen as a powerful instrument of communication, capable of both blessing and cursing. The ability to speak multiple languages was highly valued, especially in a diverse empire with many cultures and languages. In Jewish tradition, the tongue was often associated with wisdom and the power of words, as seen in the Proverbs and other wisdom literature.

1100 glṓssa – tongue, used of flowing speech; (figuratively) speaking, inspired by God, like the evidence of tongues-speaking supplied by the Lord in the book of Acts to demonstrate the arrival of the new age of the covenant (i.e. NT times).

[The normative experience of the 120 believers received "tongues (1100 /glṓssa) as of fire" (Ac 2:3) and miraculously spoke in other actual languages, i.e. that they could not speak before (Ac 2:4f). This sign was repeated in Ac 10:46, 19:6 – furnishing ample proof (three attestations) that the Lord had incorporated all believers into Christ's (mystical) body (1 Cor 12:13).]

Word Origin
from a prim. root glóch- (projecting point)
Definition
the tongue, a language
NASB Translation
tongue (25), tongues (25).

STRONGS NT 1100: γλῶσσα

γλῶσσα, γλωσης, ἡ (from Homer down), the tongue;

1. the tongue, a member of the body, the organ of speech: Mark 7:33, 35; Luke 1:64; Luke 16:24; 1 Corinthians 14:9; James 1:26; James 3:5, 6, 8; 1 Peter 3:10; 1 John 3:18; (Revelation 16:10). By a poetic and rhetorical usage, especially Hebraistic, that member of the body which is chiefly engaged in some act has ascribed to it what belongs to the man; the tongue is so used in Acts 2:26 (ἠγαλλιάσατο ἡ γλῶσσα μου); Romans 3:13; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:11 (the tongue of every man); of the little tongue-like flames symbolizing the gift of foreign tongues, in Acts 2:3.

2. a tongue, i. e. the language used by a particular people in distinction from that of other nations: Acts 2:11; hence, in later Jewish usage (Isaiah 66:18; Daniel 3:4; Daniel 5:19 Theod.; Theod.; Judges 3:8) joined with φυλή, λαός, ἔθνος, it serves to designate people of various languages (cf. Winer's Grammar, 32), Revelation 5:9; Revelation 7:9; Revelation 10:11; Revelation 11:9; Revelation 13:7; Revelation 14:6; Revelation 17:15. λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γλώσσαις to speak with other than their native i. e. in foreign tongues, Acts 2:4, cf. Acts 2:6-11; γλώσσαις λαλεῖν καιναῖς to speak with new tongues which the speaker has not learned previously, Mark 16:17 (but Tr text WH text omit; Tr marginal reading brackets καιναῖς); cf. DeWette on Acts, p. 27ff (correct and supplement his references by Meyer on 1 Corinthians 12:10; cf. also B. D. under the word Tongues, Gift of). From both these expressions must be carefully distinguished the simple phrases λαλεῖν γλώσσαις, γλώσσαις λαλεῖν, λαλεῖν γλώσσῃ, γλώσσῃ λαλεῖν (and προσεύχεσθαι γλώσσῃ, 1 Corinthians 14:14), to speak with (in) a tongue (the organ of speech), to speak with tongues; this, as appears from 1 Corinthians 14:7ff, is the gift of men who, rapt in an ecstasy and no longer quite masters of their own reason and consciousness, pour forth their glowing spiritual emotions in strange utterances, rugged, dark, disconnected, quite unfitted to instruct or to influence the minds of others: Acts 10:46; Acts 19:6; 1 Corinthians 12:30; 1 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Corinthians 14:2, 4-6, 13, 18, 23, 27, 39. The origin of the expression is apparently to be found in the fact, that in Hebrew the tongue is spoken of as the leading instrument by which the praises of God are proclaimed (ἡ τῶν θείων ὕμνων μελῳδός, 4 Macc. 10:21, cf. Psalm 34:28 (); (); (); Psalm 125:2 (); Acts 2:26; Philippians 2:11; λαλεῖν ἐν γλώσσῃ, Psalm 38:4 (), and that according to the more rigorous conception of inspiration nothing human in an inspired man was thought to be active except the tongue, put in motion by the Holy Spirit (κατάχρηται ἕτερος αὐτοῦ τοῖς φωνητηριοις ὀργάνοις, στόματι καί γλωττη πρός μηνυσιν ὧν ἄν θέλῃ, Philo, rer. div. haer. § 53 (i. 510, Mang. edition)); hence, the contrast διατουνως (critical editions τῷ νοι<) λαλεῖν, 1 Corinthians 14:19 cf. 1 Corinthians 14:9. The plural in the phrase γλώσσαις λαλεῖν, used even of a single person (1 Corinthians 14:5f), refers to the various motions of the tongue. By metonymy, of the cause for the effect, γλῶσσαι tongues are equivalent to λόγοι ἐν γλώσσῃ (1 Corinthians 14:19) words spoken in a tongue (Zungenvorträge): 1 Corinthians 13:8; 1 Corinthians 14:22; γένη γλωσσῶν, 1 Corinthians 12:10, 28, of which two kinds are mentioned viz. προσευχή and ψαλμός, 1 Corinthians 14:15; γλῶσσαν ἔχω, something to utter with a tongue, 1 Corinthians 14:26. (On 'Speaking with Tongues' see, in addition to the discussions above referred to, Wendt in the 5th edition of Meyer on Acts (Acts 2:4); Heinrici, Korinthierbriefe, i., 372ff; Schaff, Hist. of the Chr. Church, i. 234-245 (1882); Farrar, St. Paul, i. 95ff.)

tongue.

Of uncertain affinity; the tongue; by implication, a language (specially, one naturally unacquired) -- tongue.

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