limite

Forms

limite m (plural limiti)^[1] Old Italian also had the forms Old Italian limita and Old Italian limites.^[2] In the old language the plural could be feminine, le limite.^[3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin līmes (“boundary; boundary path”), taken from the accusative ⟨līmitem⟩.^[4][5][6][1] DELI describes the Latin word's origin as uncertain.^[4] French limite (14th century) and Spanish límite are learned borrowings of the same Latin noun.^[5][7]

The Latin noun first meant a path running along the edge of a field and only later “boundary, frontier”.^[5][7] It survived by popular descent in a few places: in southern Italian, Piedmontese and Friulian dialect forms, and as Old French linte, Catalan llinda, Spanish linde and Portuguese linda.^[7][8] In Sardinian the old sense “boundary” is still alive.^[4]

The Latin word belongs with līmen (“threshold”), the source of limine, and with līmus (“oblique, sidelong”).^[5][9][10] Devoto took it to mean a natural, not straight, boundary line, and noted that it has no reliable relatives outside Italy.^[9] Nocentini also finds no sure cognate in the other Indo-European languages.^[5]

The use of the word as an adjective after a noun began in the technical languages of mathematics and philosophy, and the phrase meaning “at the limit” also comes from mathematics; its recent use as a free adverb (“at most, if need be”) follows French à la limite, as Ornella Castellani Pollidori showed.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is Bono Giamboni's Florentine translation of Orosius (1292), with the sense “boundary line, border”.^[2] DELI dates the sense “boundary, barrier” to Francesco da Barberino (1313), and gives a figurative use, the limits of a woman's honour, from before 1276.^[4] In the passage GDLI quotes from the translation of Guido delle Colonne, women should hold dear the bounds of their houses “to keep the ends and limits of their honour” (per conservare li fini e li limiti della loro onestade).^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the line that divides two fields the word widened to the furthest point a thing can reach, and to the bounds that may not or should not be crossed; already in Old Italian it named the edge of what is possible and the mark beyond which excess begins.^[2][4] Tommaseo records it also for the marker of a boundary, citing Annibal Caro's line on an old stone “placed there as a boundary” between fields.^[11]

The sense “range, extent assigned to something” is recorded from 1657, and “last degree, extreme line” from 1788.^[4] Mathematics gave it the sense of the value a function approaches, and, from mathematics came the adjective after a noun, as in caso limite “extreme case” and valore limite, which DELI first finds in 1957; the earlier technical uses include angolo limite in mathematics and concetto limite in philosophy.^[4][6] The modern language also uses it for a personal shortcoming, i propri limiti, and in sport for the line of the penalty area in football (punizione dal limite).^[6][12][13]

The verb limitare, from Latin, is recorded in Dante, and DELI notes that 19th-century purists saw French se borner and borné behind uses such as limitarsi a and mente limitata.^[4]

Timeline

• Before 1276 – A figurative use, the limits of honour, is recorded.^[4]
• 1292 – Bono Giamboni's translation of Orosius has limite “border”.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses the verb limitare “to bound, circumscribe”.^[4]
• 1313 – Francesco da Barberino uses limite for “boundary, barrier”.^[4][6]
• 1657 – The sense “range, extent of something” is recorded.^[4]
• 1788 – The sense “extreme degree, last line” is recorded.^[4]
• 19th century – DEI records a physics term, the limiting angle of refraction.^[7]
• 1957 – The invariable adjective after a noun (caso limite) is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. boundary, border: the line that marks the end of an area or divides two areas: Il sentiero corre lungo il limite del bosco.^{[6][12][14][1]}
2. A marker of a boundary, such as a stone or a fence.^[6][14][13]
3. (figurative) limit: the furthest point, the degree that cannot or must not be exceeded: Anche la mia pazienza ha un limite.^{[6][12][15][1]}
4. A level above or below which something happens; a set maximum: limite di velocità, limite di età.^[6][12][14]
5. (figurative) A shortcoming, a weak point: Conosco bene i miei limiti.^[6][14]
6. (mathematics) The limit of a function or a sequence.^[14][16]
7. (sport) In football, the line of the penalty area.^[12][13][15]

Adjective

1. (invariable, after a noun) Extreme, at the edge of what is possible: un caso limite.^[4][6][13]

Word family

• limitabile
• limitamento
• limitare
• limitatamente
• limitatezza
• limitativo
• limitato
• limitazione
• delimitare
• delimitazione

Related words

• limitarsi
• limitrofo
• limine
• Latin līmes
• French limite

Usage notes

Al limite means “at most, if it comes to that”.^[15][17] Plurals of the adjectival compounds stay invariable: casi limite.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2233
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli