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 CElīmus1‘askew’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElīmes2‘a cross-path or balk between fields’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400limit2
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500limit2
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1592limit2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin limes
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English limit
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “I prithee, give no limits to my tongue.”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElīmusWiktionary, Latin limes‘askew’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElīmesWiktionary, English limit‘a cross-path or balk between fields’
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400limitWiktionary, English limit
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500limitWiktionary, English limit
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1592limitWiktionary, English limit. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 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. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElīmes‘a limit set between two estates or fields, border, boundary’
  5. Latinc. 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.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “limit”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin limes. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin līmus / limit

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