Etymologically
Log in

lima

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Spanish word lima

lima1 lime (fruit, tree)

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1490 Alfonso de Palencia, Universal vocabulario
Borrowed from
Arabic لِيمَة
Ultimate origin
Persian لیمو

Pronunciation

  • /ˈlima/, [ˈli.ma][1]

Forms

lima f (plural limas)[1]

Etymology

The word for the fruit is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic لِيمَة (líma), from Arabic ليمة (līmah).[2][3][4][1] Corriente traces the Arabic word to Persian لیمو (limu), and further to Sanskrit.[3][4] Wiktionary derives the Andalusian Arabic word from لَيْمُون (laymūn, “lemon, lime”).[1]

Corominas puts the word in the family of limón: the Arabic form with /i/ is found in the Moroccan writers Ibn Battuta and Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century, and its influence explains why the Spanish name of the lemon has /i/ where the Arabic one has a diphthong.[5][6] The same Andalusian Arabic word gave Portuguese lima, Galician lima and Catalan llima.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Alfonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario (1490), who notes that oranges, lemons, citrons and limas, que llamamos en romance, “limes, as we call them in Romance”, are different trees that Latin lumped together under one name.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija's 1513 vocabulary has lima arbol, the tree.[7] Pedro de Alcalá gave the Arabic equivalents, and Covarrubias (1611) called the lime a well-known fruit of many kinds.[5][8] Autoridades (1734) described it as a kind of lemon, smaller and rounder.[9] In the Americas limes and oranges are recorded in Puebla in 1534, and José de Acosta (1590) noted that limes and oranges grew there in abundance.[10][11] In Mexico and South America the word names the sweet lime.[1] In Argentina the lime is a well-known citrus fruit, distinguished from the lemon.[5]

Timeline

  • 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia records limas.[5][6]
  • 1513 – Nebrija's vocabulary has lima “lime tree”.[7]
  • 1534 – first record from the Americas, in Puebla.[10]
  • 1590 – José de Acosta's Historia natural y moral de las Indias.[11]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as a well-known fruit.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The fruit of the limero, round and somewhat flattened, with a smooth yellow rind and greenish, juicy pulp; a lime; in Mexico and South America, a sweet lime.[2][1]
  2. A drink made with lime juice.[2]
  3. The lime tree (limero).[2]

Word family

  • limero

lima2 file (tool)

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1251–1255 Alfonso X, Fuero Real
Inherited from
Latin lima
Ultimate origin
Latin lima
Etymology tree of lima2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin lima
Spanish lima

Pronunciation

  • /ˈlima/, [ˈli.ma][1]

Forms

lima f (plural limas)[1]

Etymology

The word for the tool is inherited from Latin līma (“file”).[2][12][13][1] It has been in use at every period and is common to the western Romance languages: Portuguese lima, Galician lima, Asturian llima, Catalan llima, French lime and Italian lima.[12][14][15]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear.[16] The etymology accepted by Walde–Hofmann connects it with lēvis (“smooth”) and the Germanic word for slime, from a root Proto-Indo-European *slei-; de Vaan notes that a file is not smooth itself, only makes things smooth, and mentions a link with linō (“to smear”) as an alternative.[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in Alfonso X's Fuero Real (1251–1255, in a copy of 1255), which punishes whoever files coins down con lima o con otra cosa, “with a file or with anything else”.[18] DEMel has the word in the Fuero de Soria of before 1252–1254.[19] The DCECH's first record is Alfonso de Palencia (1490), who speaks of the iron file that can thin and polish all metals.[12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the word for the steel tool that works metals, and his astronomical books for filing down instruments.[20][18] Already in the General Estoria the file is a figure of trial that purifies, like the furnace for gold.[18] Autoridades (1734) recorded the figurative sense “final polish or correction of a work, especially of the mind”.[21] The Academy's 1884 edition gave lima sorda, a file muffled with lead that makes no noise, figuratively something that wears a thing away unnoticed.[22] In the old thieves' slang lima meant “shirt”.[23]

Timeline

  • 1251–1255 – lima in Alfonso X's Fuero Real.[18]
  • c. 1277 – Rabí Zag's astronomical books.[18]
  • 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia, the DCECH's first record.[12][13]
  • 1512 – first record from the Americas, “iron files” in Puerto Rico.[10]
  • 1734 – Autoridades records the figurative sense “final polish”.[21]
  • 1884 – the Academy records lima sorda.[22]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A file: a tool of tempered steel with a finely grooved surface, for wearing down and smoothing metal and other hard materials.[2][1]
  2. A similar tool used for polishing, such as a nail file: Guardó la lima de uñas en el bolso.[2]
  3. The act of filing (limar).[2]
  4. (figurative) The correction and polishing of a work, especially an intellectual one.[2][21]

Word family

  • limar
  • limadura
  • limalla
  • limón
  • limonero

Usage notes

Lima sorda is a file muffled with lead, and figuratively something that wears a thing away imperceptibly.[2] The DLE also has a third lima, an architectural term for the timber at the angle of a roof and for that angle itself, which it derives from Latin lima, feminine of limus “oblique”;[2][12] Corominas calls this technical word of uncertain origin and dates it 1603, in the Ordenanzas de Toledo.[2][12] The capital of Peru, Lima, is a proper name.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. lima
  3. ^ a b c Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos
  4. ^ a b c Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. lima
  5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 656
  6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. limón
  7. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 372
  8. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1087
  9. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. lima
  10. ^ a b c Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. lima
  11. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. lima
  12. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 652
  13. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lima
  14. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. lima
  15. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5045
  16. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  17. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  18. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
  19. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. lima
  20. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. lima
  21. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 405
  22. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 646
  23. ^ Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. s.v. lima

Borrowed into

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Lima.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/lima. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·