From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishlingolin‧go /ˈlɪŋɡəʊ $ -ɡoʊ/ noun [countable usually singular] informal 1 LANGUAGEa language, especially a foreign one I’d like to go to Greece, but I don’t speak the lingo.2 LANGUAGEwords or expressions used only by a particular group of people, or at a particular period of time academic lingo
Examples from the Corpus
lingo• In computer lingo, a million bytes is commonly referred to as one megabyte.• And not much chance of Fishy learning enough of the local lingo to set up a sting like this.• He picked up the local lingo straight away.• "Deliver the package" is pilot lingo for dropping a bomb on a target.• In the lingo of the Cold War, who had turned whom?• In the lingo of modern thinking, the human is part of the loop.• Consumers have no say in this arrangement; they are expected to simply buy the new devices and learn the lingo.• Travelling in Spain is much easier if you can speak the lingo.• I'd like to go to Greece, but I don't speak the lingo.• Tourists navigated with resigned expressions: this was Holiday and at least you could understand the lingo.• He picked up the lingo right away, but I can't get any kind of fix on it.speak the lingo• His son is probably the guy in the Guinness Draught ad, who is no tourist because he speaks the lingo.Origin lingo (1600-1700) Provençal lingo “tongue” or Portuguese lingoa, both from Latin lingua 