limon

limon¹ silt, mud

Pronunciation

• /li.mɔ̃/^[1]

Forms

limon m (plural limons)^[1]

Etymology

The word for silt is inherited from Vulgar Latin *limo (“mud”) (accusative *limonem), formed on Latin limus (“mud, slime”).^[2][3][4][5] Bloch and Wartburg compare sablon beside sable¹.^[4] The simple Latin word survives in Old French lum, lun (late 12th century to 1306), in Old Occitan lim and in Italian limo and Spanish limo.^[2][3][6] The Grand Robert allows for the influence of a Frankish word akin to German Lehm (“clay”).^[7]

Rey relates the Latin word to Old Norse slím and Old High German slīm (“mud”), and probably to Ancient Greek λειμών (leimṓn, “wet meadow”) and λίμνη (límnē, “marsh”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the late 11th-century glosses of Rashi for the soft earth that a river carries and leaves on its banks, and in the Oxford Psalter in the first half of the 12th century.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The word names mud, and above all the fine earth carried and laid down by running water.^[3][2] From about 1280 it was used figuratively for moral defilement, like boue and fange, a use now almost gone.^[3][8] Translating the Vulgate, it also named the clay from which God shaped the world and Adam in Genesis (1664), hence a person's origin or nature.^[3][2][9] In geology it names a fine, fertile soil of sand and clay laid down by rivers or the wind.^[9][10]

Timeline

• Late 11th century – Recorded in Rashi's glosses.^[2]
• First half of the 12th century – Found in the Oxford Psalter.^[2]
• c. 1280 – Figurative sense “moral filth”.^[3][8]
• 1320 – The derivative limoneux appears.^[4][3]
• 1664 – Boileau alludes to the clay of Genesis: Dieu l'a pétri d'autre limon que moi.^[2]
• 1868 – The derivative limonage is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. silt, fine earth and organic matter carried and deposited by water: La crue a laissé du limon sur la berge..^[11][2]
2. (geology) loam, a fertile soil of fine particles laid down by water or wind.^[10][9]
3. (literary) The clay from which God made man in Genesis; hence human nature or origin.^[8][9]
4. (figurative, dated) Moral filth.^[8][3]

Word family

• limoneux
• limonite
• limonage

limon² shaft of a cart; stair string

Pronunciation

• /li.mɔ̃/^[1]

Forms

limon m (plural limons)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the shaft of a cart is of obscure origin.^[2] The Grand Robert, the Petit Robert and Larousse take it to be from Gaulish *lem- (“crosspiece, plank”), a Gaulish root.^{[7][12][10][8]} The TLFi and Bloch and Wartburg see the same Celtic root as in Spanish leme and Portuguese leme (“rudder”): since Indo-European /ei/ became now /e/, now /i/ in Celtic, they suppose Proto-Celtic *leim-, perhaps related to Latin līmen, originally “wooden crossbar”.^[2][4][13] Littré took it from the Spanish word, whose own origin he called unknown, and noted Walloon limon (“beam”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Eneas, about 1160, it means a stretcher or bier.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

From the bier it came to name each of the two long shafts between which a horse is harnessed to a cart.^[8][2] By the 16th century it was also used in building for the sloping beam that carries the steps of a staircase on the side away from the wall.^[9][12][2]

Timeline

• c. 1150 – The derivative limonier “shaft horse” is found in the Charroi de Nîmes.^[2]
• c. 1160 – Limon means a bier in the Eneas.^[2]
• 16th century – Limons de montées for staircase beams.^[9]
• 1627 – The Coutume de Douai uses it for the beam carrying the steps of a staircase.^[2]
• 1798 – The Académie records limonière.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Each of the two shafts of a cart, between which the horse is harnessed.^[12][11][10]
2. (architecture) The string of a staircase, the sloping beam that carries the steps on the open side.^[12][10][2]

Word family

• limonier
• limonière

limon³ a kind of lemon

Pronunciation

• /li.mɔ̃/^[1]

Forms

limon m (plural limons)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the lemon is borrowed from Italian limone,^[3][7][1] which is from Arabic ليمون (laymūn), a word of Persian origin.^[3][7][14] Bloch and Wartburg say that the fruit seems to have been unknown in Europe before the Crusades and that the crusaders brought back its Arabo-Persian name;^[4] Rey adds that the Arabs had brought its cultivation to the Mediterranean.^[3] Cognate with Old Occitan limon, Spanish limón and Portuguese limão.^[4][9][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is recorded about 1314 for a sour, thin-skinned kind of citron.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The word named a sour lemon with a thin rind, and the tree was called limonier (1351);^[3][4][9] the word itself has since gone out of use.^[3][12] It lives on in its derivatives: limonade (1640) first meant a drink of water, sugar and lemon juice and later a sweet fizzy drink, and limonadier (1666) named first the seller of it, then the café owner.^[3][2][4] English lemon (about 1400, lymon) was taken from Old French limon.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1314 – First recorded.^[3][4]
• 1351 – The date the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert give for the word; the tree limonier is also recorded.^[7][12][4]
• 1640 – Limonnade appears in Oudin.^[2]
• 1666 – Limonadier is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) A kind of lemon with a thin rind and a very sour juice; a citron.^[12][9][3]

Word family

• limonade
• limonadier
• limonène