Etymograph

English

lime

Lime comes from Middle English lyme ‘organ, body part’, from Old English līm ‘glue’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- ‘to smear’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂leyH-‘to smear’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*līmaz‘glue, lime’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*līm‘glue’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150līm‘glue’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lyme‘organ, body part’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1598–1599lime

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂leyH-‘to smear’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*līmaz‘glue, lime’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*līm‘glue’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150līm‘glue’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lyme‘organ, body part’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1598–1599lime

Earliest quotation: 1598–1599, Much Adoe about Nothing: “URSULA. She's lim'd, I warrant you: we have caught…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- ‘to smear’

delete, deletion, loam, indelible, dele, 9 more

through Middle English lyme ‘organ, body part’

limb

Another origin of lime

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*lindijōreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150lind‘lime, linden’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lynde‘any of a number of trees of the genus Tilia’
  4. Englishtodaylime

Lime (17th c.) and line (16th c.) are alterations of obsolete lind, from Middle English lynde, from Old English lind, from Proto-Germanic *lindijō. The phonetic development is unusual, but it has been suggested that it began in compounds (loss of -d- perhaps before tree, the change to -m- before labials as in bark or wood).disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it.

Another origin of lime

  1. Proto-Malayo-Polynesianprehistoric (reconstructed)*limaw‘lime, citrus’uncertain
  2. Sanskritc. 1500–500 BCEनिम्बूnimbū
  3. Classical Persianc. 900–presentلِیمُوlīmū, līmō
  4. Arabicc. 500–presentلِيمَةlīma
  5. Spanishc. 1500–presentlima‘lime (fruit)’
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentlime
  7. Englishtodaylime

Today it means

noun Any inorganic material containing calcium, usually calcium oxide (quicklime) or calcium hydroxide (slaked lime).

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- / lime

Shirt and support for this word