Etymograph

English

limit

Limit comes from Old French limit, from Latin līmes (stem līmit-) ‘boundary, balk between fields’, from līmus ‘askew’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElīmus‘askew’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CElīmes‘a cross-path or balk between fields’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400limit
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1592same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElīmus‘askew’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CElīmes‘a cross-path or balk between fields’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400limit
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1592same form

Earliest quotation: c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “I prithee, give no limits to my tongue.”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃l- ‘to bow, to bend’

sublime, ell, ulna, subliminal, 8 more

through Latin līmes ‘a cross-path or balk between fields, hence a…’

limes, delimitation, 8 more

Another origin of limit

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*Heh₃l-‘to bow, to bend’uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*līmosuncertain
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElīmus‘askew’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CElīmes‘a limit set between two estates or fields, border, boundary’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CElīmitō‘to bound, limit, fix, determine’
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400limiter
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500limiten
  8. Englishtodaylimit

Today it means

noun A restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go or proceed.

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

Etymograph / Latin līmus / limit

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