limo

Forms

limo m (plural limos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin līmus (“mud, slime”).^[2][3][4][5] Houaiss dates the Portuguese word to the 14th century from Cunha's medieval slips.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician limo, Spanish limo, Asturian llimu, Catalan llim, Italian limo and Romanian im, and Old French lum, while French limon comes from a derivative.^[6][7] The REW notes that in Portuguese the word also came to mean “sea-grass” and “reed-grass”.^[6] The Spanish word is recorded from about 1280.^[8]

Houaiss derives the Latin word from a Greek noun for a meadow, but de Vaan reconstructs *(s)loimo- and compares the Germanic word for loam (lām, leim, from *laimaz) and the words for slime (slím); he sets it either under a PIE *loimo- (“loam”) or under a root for “slime, slimy”.^[2][9] Wiktionary calls the origin somewhat uncertain and names λίμνη (límnē, “marsh, pool”) among the possible cognates.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The prose of the early 15th century already uses the word: the Horto do Esposo, in a witness copied between 1390 and 1437, has it five times.^[10] The first sense Houaiss gives is a sticky mixture of clay, organic matter and water, that is, mud.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1716) defines limo as a kind of green moss that grows like tow on stagnant water and on the bed of the sea and rivers, and quotes Camões, who gives the sea-god Triton a beard and hair of limos.^[11] Vieira (1873) still describes it as a moss-like growth of tanks and rivers.^[12] This plant sense became the botanical one, a mass of green algae in damp places or still water, which Aurélio puts first.^[13][2]

Figurative senses grew from the mud: a greenish dirt on the teeth, and moral baseness or filth.^[2][13] Aulete and Michaelis also record the mucus of cows in heat, and Michaelis the slime that covers a fish's body.^[14][15][16] Estraviz has both for Galician.^[14][15][16] The DLP adds a soil-science sense, a soil whose particles lie between sand and clay in size.^[5]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, according to Houaiss.^[2]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo uses limo.^[10]
• 1716 – Bluteau defines limo as a green water moss and quotes Camões.^[11]
• 1755 – Folqman glosses it with Latin alga.^[17]
• 1873 – Vieira's dictionary describes the moss of tanks and rivers.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) A green mass of algae, filamentous or not, growing in fresh water, on wet stones or in damp places.^[2][13][18]
2. mud, slime, silt: a sticky mixture of clay, organic matter and water; lodo.^[2][13][1]
3. A greenish dirt on the teeth.^[2][13]
4. (figurative) Moral baseness, vileness, filth.^[2][18]
5. (geology) A coloured clay rich in quartz;^[2][5] (agriculture) a soil of particles between sand and clay in size.^[2][5]
6. The mucus of cows in heat; the slime on the body of fish.^[15][14]

Word family

• limoso

Related words

• Latin līmus
• Galician limo

Usage notes

In Brazil limo da Costa (Castro: limo-da-costa) is a kind of African vegetable butter used in Afro-Brazilian religion.^[19][2] Castro takes it from Fon limu, and Houaiss thinks the phrase was influenced by the English word lime, because Oxalá is represented by balls of the substance.^[19][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. limo
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. limo
4. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. limo
5. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. limo
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. limon
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. limo
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. limo
11. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. limo
12. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 1316
13. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. limo
14. ^ a b c Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. limo
15. ^ a b c Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. limo
16. ^ a b Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. limo
17. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. limo
18. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. limo
19. ^ a b Castro, Yeda Pessoa de (2002), A língua mina-jeje no Brasil: um falar africano em Ouro Preto do século XVIII, Belo Horizonte: Fundação João Pinheiro, p. 209