lung

来自古英语lungen(复数)，肺，来自PIE*legwh,轻的，词源同light,levity.因相比于心，胃等其它内脏器官而言，肺较轻，且能在水中浮起来，因而得名。

lung

lung: [OE] Lungs, insubstantial air-filled sacs, got their name because they weigh so little. It comes ultimately from Indo-European *lnggh-, a variant of which produced English light ‘not heavy’. In prehistoric Germanic this became *lungg-, which over the centuries has differentiated to German lunge, Dutch long, Swedish lunga, and English lung. The similarly motivated use of the word lights for ‘lungs’ dates from the 12th century; it is now restricted to ‘animals’ lungs used as food’, but it was formerly a general term.
=> light

lung (n.)

"human respiratory organ," c. 1300, from Old English lungen (plural), from Proto-Germanic *lungw- (cognates: Old Norse lunge, Old Frisian lungen, Middle Dutch longhe, Dutch long, Old High German lungun, German lunge "lung"), literally "the light organ," from PIE *legwh- "not heavy, having little weight; easy, agile, nimble" (cognates: Russian lëgkij, Polish lekki "light;" Russian lëgkoje "lung," Greek elaphros "light" in weight; see also lever).

The notion probably is from the fact that, when thrown into a pot of water, lungs of a slaughtered animal float, while the heart, liver, etc., do not. Compare also Portuguese leve "lung," from Latin levis "light;" Irish scaman "lungs," from scaman "light;" Welsh ysgyfaint "lungs," from ysgafn "light." See also lights, pulmonary. Lung cancer attested from 1882.

1. 10,000 deaths a year from chronic lung disease are attributable to smoking.

吸烟导致每年有1万人死于慢性肺病。

2. Lung cells die and are replaced about once a week.

肺细胞约每周新老更替一次。

3. He was rushed to hospital last week after suffering a collapsed lung.

上星期，他因出现肺萎陷而被火速送进医院。

4. There is an acknowledged risk of lung cancer from radon.

氡被认为有诱发肺癌的危险。

5. He was born with only one lung.

他生下来就只有一叶肺。