What is "ling"

Heath \Heath\ (h[=e]th), n. [OE. heth waste land, the plant heath, AS. h[=ae][eth]; akin to D. & G. heide, Icel. hei[eth]r waste land, Dan. hede, Sw. hed, Goth. hai[thorn]i field, L. bucetum a cow pasture; cf. W. coed a wood, Skr. ksh[=e]tra field. [root]20.]

1. (Bot.)

   1. A low shrub ( Erica vulgaris or Calluna vulgaris), with minute evergreen leaves, and handsome clusters of pink flowers. It is used in Great Britain for brooms, thatch, beds for the poor, and for heating ovens. It is also called heather, and ling.

   2. Also, any species of the genus Erica, of which several are European, and many more are South African, some of great beauty. See Illust. of Heather.

2. A place overgrown with heath; any cheerless tract of country overgrown with shrubs or coarse herbage.

   Their stately growth, though bare, Stands on the blasted heath.
   --Milton

   Heath cock (Zo["o]l.), the blackcock. See Heath grouse (below).

   Heath grass (Bot.), a kind of perennial grass, of the genus Triodia ( Triodia decumbens), growing on dry heaths.

   Heath grouse, or Heath game (Zo["o]l.), a European grouse ( Tetrao tetrix), which inhabits heaths; -- called also black game, black grouse, heath poult, heath fowl, moor fowl. The male is called heath cock, and blackcock; the female, heath hen, and gray hen.

   Heath hen. (Zo["o]l.) See Heath grouse (above).

   Heath pea (Bot.), a species of bitter vetch ( Lathyrus macrorhizus), the tubers of which are eaten, and in Scotland are used to flavor whisky.

   Heath throstle (Zo["o]l.), a European thrush which frequents heaths; the ring ouzel.

Eelpout \Eel"pout`\, n. [AS. ?lepute.] (Zo["o]l.)

1. A European fish ( Zoarces viviparus), remarkable for producing living young; -- called also greenbone, guffer, bard, and Maroona eel. Also, an American species ( Z. anguillaris), -- called also mutton fish, and, erroneously, congo eel, ling, and lamper eel. Both are edible, but of little value.

2. A fresh-water fish, the burbot.

Burbot \Bur"bot\, n. [F. barbote, fr. barbe beard. See 1st Barb.] (Zo["o]l.) A fresh-water fish of the genus Lota, having on the nose two very small barbels, and a larger one on the chin.

Note: The fish is also called an eelpout or ling, and is allied to the codfish. The Lota vulgaris is a common European species. An American species ( Lota maculosa) is found in New England, the Great Lakes, and farther north.

long, slender fish, c.1300, common Germanic, cognate with Dutch leng, German Leng, Old Norse langa, probably ultimately related to long (adj.).

n. 1 Any of various marine food fish, of the genus ''Molva'', resembling the cod. 2 Short for common ling, ''Molva molva''. 3 Any of various varieties of heather or broom.

1. n. water chestnut whose spiny fruit has two rather than 4 prongs [syn: ling ko, Trapa bicornis]

2. common Old World heath represented by many varieties; low evergreen grown widely in the northern hemisphere [syn: heather, Scots heather, broom, Calluna vulgaris]

3. elongated marine food fish of Greenland and northern Europe; often salted and dried [syn: Molva molva]

4. American hakes

5. elongate freshwater cod of northern Europe and Asia and North America having barbels around its mouth [syn: burbot, eelpout, cusk, Lota lota]

Ling may refer to:

• Ling (surname), a surname of various origins
• Ling County, in Shandong, China
• Ling, County Londonderry, a townland in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
• Ling, a common name for the plant Calluna (AKA heather), particularly Calluna vulgaris
• Ling, a common name for several species of fish:
  • Common ling (Molva molva)
  • Blue ling (Molva dypterygia)
  • Burbot (Lota lota)
  • Cobia (Rachycentron canadum)
  • Pink cusk-eel (Genypterus blacodes)
• ling., an abbreviation of linguistics
• ling, an alternative form of the Hindi lingam
• ling , the Chinese name of the water caltrop

Ling is a surname which can be of Chinese, English, or Nordic origin.

Ling (灵, Vietnamese: linh) is the notion of sacred in Chinese traditional religions. It is the inchoate order of creation, that is the "medium" of the bivalency constituted by the opposite forces of the universe ( yin and yang). Therefore, it is the state or power of gods and divine beings ( shen); their activity, actuality, is xian ling, literally "holy virtue, sacred efficacy, the sacred as manifest", or numen.

Ling is the mediating bivalency, the "medium", between yin and yang, that is "disorder" and "order", "activity" or "passivity", with yang usually preferred over yin. More specifically, the ling power of an entity resides in mediation between the two levels of order and disorder, activity and passivity, which govern social transformation. The mediating entity itself shifts of status and function between one level and another, and makes meaning in different contexts.

This attribute is often associated with goddesses, animal motifs such as the snake—an amphibian animal—, the owl which takes night for day, the bat being half bird and half mammal, the rooster who crows at the crack between night and morning, but also rivers dividing landmasses, and other "liminal" entities. There are yin gods and yang gods. Ling is a "cultural logic of symbolic relations", that mediates polarity in a dialectic governing reproduction and change.

Ling has also been described as the ability to set up spatial and temporal boundaries, represent and identify metaphors, setting apart and linking together differences. The boundary is crossed by practices such as sacrifice and inspiration ( shamanism). Spiritual mediumship makes the individual the center of actualising possibilities, acts and events indicative of the will of the gods. The association of ling with liminality implies the possibility of constructing various kinds of social times and history. In this way, the etho-political (ethnic) dimension is nurtured, regenerated by re-enactment, and constructed at first place, imagined and motivated in the process of forging a model of reality.