limosus

Forms

līmōsus (feminine līmōsa, neuter līmōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin līmus (“mud, slime”) + -ōsus.^[2][1] De Vaan derives līmus from Proto-Italic *(s)le/oimo- and connects it either with the Germanic word for loam, as Old English lām, or with the Germanic and Balto-Slavic words for slime, as Old Norse slím.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from the Bellum Alexandrinum,^[4] which says the water carried by the Nile is so muddy and turbid.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It means full of mud, muddy, slimy: Virgil has a muddy lake and a marsh covering pastures with rushes that grow in mud,^[5][2] and Pliny the Elder uses it of a root.^[5] The OLD records its use for plants and animals that live in muddy places.^[2] It is also covered with slime, as Pliny the Elder's bones slimy with pus.^[2]

Timeline

• 2nd half of the 1st century BC – The Bellum Alexandrinum of the muddy Nile water.^[4][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a muddy lake and muddy rushes.^[5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of slimy bones.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of mud, muddy, miry, marshy;^[2][5][1] (of plants and animals) living in muddy places.^[2][5][1]
2. Covered with slime, slimy.^[2][1]

Related words

• līmus
• lutulentus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press