limp

Etymology

The verb is probably a back-formation from English limphalt (“lame”),^[2][3][4][5] which is from Old English lemphealt (“halting, lame”), also læmpihalt.^[6][7][8] The second element of the Old English word is healt (“lame”), the source of halt;^[9][8][6] the first element is obscure,^[10] though the American Heritage Dictionary glosses it "hanging loosely".^[9] Etymonline calls the verb of unknown origin, and like Barnhart notes that it is not found in Old or Middle English.^[10][6] Merriam-Webster takes it as probably from Middle English lympen (“to fall short”),^[11] which Etymonline and Barnhart also connect with it.^[10][6] Related forms are Middle High German limpfen (“to limp”) and lampen (“to hang down”),^[8][6][12] and outside Germanic Barnhart and Klein compare Latin limbus (“border, fringe”) and a Sanskrit verb meaning "it hangs down", from Proto-Indo-European *lemb-.^[6][12] The noun is formed from the verb.^[13][6] The adjective, recorded from 1706, is of uncertain origin;^[13][6][14] Barnhart, Merriam-Webster and Ayto take it as probably related to the verb,^[6][11][5] Etymonline derives it from the first element of lemphealt,^[10] the Shorter Oxford thinks it probably came from dialect, with the basic sense "hanging loose",^[4] and the OED compares German lampen (“to hang limp”).^[13] Weekley took the adjective as shortened from limber,^[15] and Dictionary.com suggests a Scandinavian source, comparing Icelandic limpa (“slackness”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Figuratively, to fall short of: about 1540, in a copy of the Destruction of Troy, a poem composed perhaps before 1400.^[13][14] The sense "to walk lamely" is recorded from 1570, in Peter Levens's Manipulus Vocabulorum,^[13][6] and Etymonline dates it to the 1560s.^[10] Palsgrave had recorded lympe hault in 1530.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The verb took over from halt, the earlier word for walking lamely, which now barely survives.^[5] From 1920 it was used of a damaged ship or aircraft that moves slowly or with difficulty, and so of ships "limping into port".^[13][16] The noun, a limping walk, is first recorded in 1818, in Todd's edition of Johnson's Dictionary.^[13][6][11] The adjective, lacking stiffness or firmness, first appears in 1706, in Kersey's edition of Phillips's dictionary.^[13][6] Johnson (1755) defined it as "vapid; weak", quoting Walton on the flesh of the chub, and noted that in some provinces and in Scotland it meant "limber, flexible"; he derived it from Italian.^[17] The figurative sense "lacking energy or firmness" is recorded from 1853,^[13] the bookbinding sense of a cover without boards from 1863,^[13] and limp wrist as a supposed sign of male effeminacy from 1960.^[13][10]

Timeline

• 1530 – lympe hault, lame, in Palsgrave.^[6]
• c. 1540 – verb, figuratively, to fall short of.^[13]
• 1570 – verb, to walk lamely.^[13][6][11]
• 1706 – adjective, lacking stiffness or firmness.^[13][6][11]
• 1818 – noun, a limping walk.^[13][6][11]
• 1853 – adjective, lacking energy or firmness of character.^[13]
• 1863 – adjective, in bookbinding, without boards.^[13]
• 1920 – verb, of a damaged ship or aircraft, to proceed with difficulty.^[13]
• 1960 – limp wrist.^[13][10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To walk unevenly, especially favouring an injured or weak leg; to hobble: After the fall he limped home.^[2][11][13]
2. To move or go on slowly and with difficulty, as a damaged ship or aircraft does; to falter: The talks limped on for another week.^[2][11][13]

Noun

1. An uneven or limping walk: She walked with a slight limp.^[2][11][13]

Adjective

1. Lacking stiffness or firmness; slack, drooping: The flag hung limp in the still air.^[11][13][4]
2. Tired out; exhausted.^[11]
3. Lacking strength, energy or firmness of character; spiritless.^[11][13]
4. Of a book: bound in a cover without stiff boards.^[13]

Word family

• limply
• limpness
• limper
• limpingly
• limp-wristed

Related words

• halt
• limber
• lump

Usage notes

A mining word limp, a tool for separating ore from refuse, recorded from 1747, is of unknown origin;^[13][4] it was used in the lead-mining districts of Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire.^[18]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)