Etymologically
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limitatio

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Forms

līmitātiō f (genitive līmitātiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin līmitō (“to mark off by boundaries”) + -tiō.[2][3][1] The verb is from līmes (“boundary strip, boundary”),[4][5] which de Vaan treats under līmen (“threshold”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in Pliny the Elder, whose table of contents announces a section on the limitatio of fields, the fixing of their boundaries.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It was a term of land surveying: the fixing of boundaries for a plot of land,[2][7] and Siculus Flaccus names it among the words for the division of land by boundary lines.[3]

In medieval British documents it meant the marking or setting up of boundaries, the enclosing of land, and a boundary itself; it also came to mean the power to designate a person, and limiting or defining in general.[8] Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for limitation and determination.[9] English took it as limitation in the 14th century, partly through French.[5]

Timeline

  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder lists the fixing of the boundaries of fields among his topics.[3][4]
  • c. 100 AD – Frontinus uses it in his writings on surveying.[3][4]
  • 1269 – A Salisbury charter uses the plural for the bounds of the canons' close.[8]
  • late 14th century – English adopts it as limitation.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The fixing of boundaries for a plot of land; delimitation.[2][3][7]
  2. (Medieval Latin) The marking out or enclosing of land; a boundary.[8]
  3. (Medieval Latin) The power to designate or assign a person.[8]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Limiting, defining; a limited condition.[8]
  5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Limitation, determination.[9]

Usage notes

Lewis & Short and Georges cite it from Columella,[10][11] but the TLL notes that the word was wrongly inserted there by older editions, which should read aestimatio.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn