I can’t remember how it happened, but it occured to me that the words linguini and linguist are similar.

Do they come from the same root?

I did know that linguist comes from the Latin lingua meaning tongue. That’s where we get lingua franca as well.

But linguini, the Italian pasta thingy?

I was disappointed that I didn’t put more thought into it before looking it up, because the relationship turns out to be quite obvious, especially for someone who’s interested in word origins or etymology.

Don’t make my mistake - ponder over it for a minute before reading on.

Linguini, I should have guessed, comes from Italian. And Italian, I should know very well, comes from Latin.

So, DUH! Linguini does come from the same latin root lingua. And obviously, it’s named after the tongue because it’s flat like a tongue.

Etymology is so cool.

P.S. Those of you who notice that language is vaguely similar to lingua will also be pleased to note that language came from Old French langage, which came from Latin lingua. (French, like Italian, comes from Latin.)

P.P.S. A handful (or more) of you might be interested to note that cunni- comes from the Latin word cunnus which refers to the vulva.

Enough language education for today ;)