limus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈliː.mʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈliː.mus]^[1]

Forms

līmus m (genitive līmī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *(s)le/oimo-.^[2] De Vaan allows two sources: Proto-Indo-European *loimo- (“loam”), from *h₂li- “to smear”, as in Old English lām (“loam”) and Old High German leim (“loam”), or *sle/oh₁i-mo- “slime”, as in Lithuanian slíekas (“earthworm”) and Old Church Slavonic слина (slina, “saliva”).^[2][3][1] The Thesaurus calls the origin uncertain.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it: “I'll run to the lake and fetch mud”.^[3][2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was mud, mire, slime or silt, as Lucretius' heavy matter of the world that sank to the bottom like mud, and Virgil's frogs singing in the mud.^[3][6] It was any viscous substance, as Pliny's lichen of trees, and also sediment and excrement.^[3][7] Döderlein says it is the mud of water, against lutum, the dirt of the streets, and caenum, filth.^[8]

In medieval Britain it was mud as a building material, the clay from which man was made, and a type of degradation.^[9] It survives as Italian limo, Spanish limo and French limon.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[3][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius compares the heavy matter of the world to mud.^[3][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of lichen.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Mud, mire, slime, silt.^[3][6]
2. Any viscous substance, slime.^[3]
3. Sediment; excrement; filth.^[7][1]

Word family

• limicola
• limigenus
• līmōsus

Related words

• lituus
• lutum
• caenum

Usage notes

There are homographs līmus “sidelong, oblique”, as in līmīs oculīs “with a sidelong glance”, and līmus “an apron edged with purple worn by sacrificial attendants”.^[3][6] Isidore derived līmus “mud” from lēnis “soft”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).