Lingua Franca en · PROPN
Etymology
See lingua franca.
Meanings
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(archaic, historical) Sabir, the Italian-based pidgin that served as a common language of Mediterranean trade around the 11th-19th centuries.
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.
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:...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.
1864, J.C. Hotten, The Slang Dictionary, section 22:...tusheroon and its C.20 variant tossaroon (2s. 6d.) are manifest corruptions of Lingua Franca MADZA CAROON.
1961, Eric Partridge, The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang: