Etymologically
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limit

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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
  • 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