limit

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈlɪm.ɪt/^[1]

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English limite,^[2] borrowed from Old French limite (“a boundary”),^[3][4] from Latin līmes (“a boundary, border, embankment between fields”) (stem līmit-),^[3][4][5] probably related to līmen (“threshold”) and possibly to līmus (“transverse, oblique”), which is of uncertain origin.^[3][4] The verb is inherited from Middle English limiten,^[2] from Old French limiter “to mark a boundary, restrict, specify”,^[3][4] from līmitāre (“to bound, limit, fix”), from līmes.^[3][2] It is related to limitation, limen and eliminate.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A boundary or frontier: about 1375 in the OED,^[6] about 1400 in Etymonline.^[3] Barnhart's first record is a legal limit on power, in Wycliffe (1384).^[4]

Semantic evolution

It was first used of territory, and the general sense, a point where something ends, as in a limit to one's patience, is from the early 15th century (1413).^[3][4] The verb, “to set limits to, restrict” and “to prescribe, fix, assign”, is from the late 14th century,^[3] and Chaucer used it about 1390.^[4] A friar's limitation was the district allotted for begging, and to limit meant “to beg within set bounds” (1577), a back-formation from limiter.^[6][4] In mathematics the limit is from the early 18th century,^[6] and in commerce, as a customer's credit limit, from 1866.^[6] The colloquial the limit, “the very extreme, the greatest degree imaginable”, is from 1904.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1375 – a boundary.^[6]
• 1384 – a legal limit on power.^[4]
• late 14th century – verb, to restrict.^[3]
• 1413 – a point where something ends.^[4]
• 1577 – to beg within limits.^[6]
• 1866 – in commerce.^[6]
• 1904 – the limit, the extreme.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The point, edge or line beyond which something cannot or may not go.
2. A boundary, or in the plural the area within it.
3. Something that restrains or confines.
4. The greatest or least amount allowed or possible: a speed limit.
5. In mathematics, the value that a function or sequence approaches.

Verb

1. To keep within bounds; to restrict.
2. To fix definitely; to specify.

Word family

• limitable
• limitless
• limitlessly
• limitlessness
• limiter
• limitableness
• lintel
• overlimit

Related words

• limitation
• limen
• eliminate
• sublime
• subliminal

Usage notes

The American Heritage distinguishes limit, which sets a maximum, from restrict, confine and circumscribe.^[7]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin