lindar

lindar¹ threshold

Pronunciation

• /linˈdaɾ/, [lĩn̪ˈd̪aɾ]^[1]

Forms

lindar m (plural lindares)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the threshold is inherited from Latin līmitāris (“of a boundary”), which the REW glosses “threshold”.^[2][3] García de Diego explains the form as an alteration of a Latin word for the threshold, from līmen (“threshold”), under the influence of līmes (“boundary”), and cites Old Aragonese limdar and the form of the Fuero de Navarra.^[4][5] The same Latin word gave Occitan lindar and, through Old French lintel, dintel “lintel”.^[2][5]

Corominas, however, considers the Spanish noun a very rare word taken from Catalan llindar.^[6] The DLE, Moliner and Wiktionary derive it from linde.^[7][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is the Fuero general de Navarra (1250–1300, in a copy of the early 14th century), on the bride brought to her husband's house: pongan la al lindar de la casa “let them set her at the threshold of the house”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word is Navarrese and Aragonese in the Middle Ages, as the Fuero de Navarra and the Old Aragonese forms show.^[4][10] Alemany recorded it in 1917 as an obsolete word for the threshold, and the DLE now marks it as little used.^[11][7]

Timeline

• 1250–1300 – the Fuero general de Navarra, in an early 14th-century copy.^[9]
• 1301 – the texts of the Fuero de Navarra in the HSMS corpus.^[10]
• 1917 – Alemany records it as obsolete, from Latin limitaris.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare) threshold (umbral).^[7][8][1]

lindar² to border, abut

Etymology tree of lindar²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin līmus

Italian limo

Romanian im

Latin līmes

Spanish linde

Spanish lindar

French limite

Romanian limită

Italian limite

Spanish límite

From the same root · lindar²

Latin līmen ← līmus

Latin līmōsus ← līmus

Romanian imos ← im

Latin līmitō ← līmes

Pronunciation

• /linˈdaɾ/, [lĩn̪ˈd̪aɾ]^[1]

Forms

lindar (first-person singular present lindo, first-person singular preterite lindé, past participle lindado)^[1]

Etymology

The verb meaning “to border” is formed from Spanish linde (“boundary”) in Corominas's view; he records it first as alindar (1578), the usual form in the Golden Age, and as lindar in Zúñiga's annals for the year 1600, a form that became general only in the 19th century.^[6][12] The DLE, Moliner and Wiktionary instead take it as a continuation of Latin līmitō (“to enclose within boundaries”), which the REW also gives as the source of Portuguese lindar.^{[7][8][1][13]} Asturian has llendar, used of fields that touch and of keeping cattle within bounds.^[6][14]

The noun linde continues līmes (“path between fields; boundary”), whose learned form is límite; the Latin verb is formed from the same noun.^[12][15][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first records are alindar in 1578 and lindar in 1600.^[6][12] Boyd-Bowman has an earlier record from Guatemala, of 1588: cacahuatales que linda con (...) el río “cacao plantations bordering on the river”.^[16] DEMel lists the form lindan in the Repartimiento de Sevilla of 1253.^[17]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades treated lindar as the same as alindar and quoted Zúñiga's annals, on a plot of land that bordered on the square of the Hospital de la Sangre.^[18] The Academy defined it in 1817 as one property being next to another, and in 1884 extended it to territories and lands and gave the etymology from linde.^[19][20] The figurative sense, “to come very close to”, is now in the DLE.^[7] In Leonese it also means to mark off land and to keep cows out of other people's fields.^[21]

Timeline

• 1253 – DEMel's record of lindan, in the Repartimiento de Sevilla.^[17]
• 1578 – the older form alindar is first recorded.^[6][12]
• 1588 – a document from Guatemala, the first record of lindar in the Americas.^[16]
• 1600 – lindar in Zúñiga's annals, Corominas's first record.^[6][18]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as one property being next to another.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from linde.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) Of two territories, plots of land or estates: to border, to abut, to be next to each other: La parcela linda con el río.^[7][1]
2. (intransitive, figurative) To come very close to something: Su terquedad linda con la locura.^[7][8]

Word family

• lindante
• colindar
• colindante