limite Italian · revision 38976

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1292, Bono Giamboni|origins=la līmes}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈli.mi.te/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''limite''' ''m'' (plural limiti)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old Italian also had the forms [[roa-oit|limita]] and [[roa-oit|limites]].^(TLIO) In the old language the plural could be feminine, ''le limite''.^(GDLI)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a learned word, [[bor|la|līmes|t=boundary; boundary path]], taken from the accusative ⟨līmitem⟩.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Wiktionary) DELI describes the Latin word's origin as uncertain.^(DELI 1999) [[fr|limite]] (14th century) and [[es|límite]] are learned borrowings of the same Latin noun.^(Nocentini 2010)^(DEI|2233)

+

+ The Latin noun first meant a path running along the edge of a field and only later “boundary, frontier”.^(Nocentini 2010)^(DEI|2233) It survived by popular descent in a few places: in southern Italian, Piedmontese and Friulian dialect forms, and as [[fro|linte]], [[ca|llinda]], [[es|linde]] and [[pt|linda]].^(DEI|2233)^(Körting 1907) In Sardinian the old sense “boundary” is still alive.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ The Latin word belongs with [[m|la|līmen|t=threshold]], the source of [[limine]], and with [[m|la|līmus|t=oblique, sidelong]].^(Nocentini 2010)^(Devoto 1968)^(OLD 2012) Devoto took it to mean a natural, not straight, boundary line, and noted that it has no reliable relatives outside Italy.^(Devoto 1968) Nocentini also finds no sure cognate in the other Indo-European languages.^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ 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 [[fr|à la limite]], as Ornella Castellani Pollidori showed.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLIO's first record is Bono Giamboni's Florentine translation of Orosius (1292), with the sense “boundary line, border”.^(TLIO) 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.^(DELI 1999) 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'').^(GDLI)

+

+ ==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.^(TLIO)^(DELI 1999) 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.^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861)

+

+ The sense “range, extent assigned to something” is recorded from 1657, and “last degree, extreme line” from 1788.^(DELI 1999) 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.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003) 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'').^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+

+ 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''.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Before 1276 – A figurative use, the limits of honour, is recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1292 – Bono Giamboni's translation of Orosius has ''limite'' “border”.^(TLIO)

+ * 1304–1308 – Dante uses the verb ''limitare'' “to bound, circumscribe”.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1313 – Francesco da Barberino uses ''limite'' for “boundary, barrier”.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)

+ * 1657 – The sense “range, extent of something” is recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1788 – The sense “extreme degree, last line” is recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 19th century – DEI records a physics term, the limiting angle of refraction.^(DEI|2233)

+ * 1957 – The invariable adjective after a noun (''caso limite'') is recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|boundary]], [[m|en|border]]: the line that marks the end of an area or divides two areas: ''Il sentiero corre lungo il limite del bosco.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A [[m|en|marker]] of a boundary, such as a stone or a fence.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # ''(figurative)'' [[m|en|limit]]: the furthest point, the degree that cannot or must not be exceeded: ''Anche la mia pazienza ha un limite.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A level above or below which something happens; a set maximum: ''limite di velocità'', ''limite di età''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # ''(figurative)'' A shortcoming, a weak point: ''Conosco bene i miei limiti.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # ''(mathematics)'' The limit of a function or a sequence.^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Wikizionario)

+ # ''(sport)'' In football, the line of the penalty area.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Treccani 2011)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # ''(invariable, after a noun)'' Extreme, at the edge of what is possible: ''un caso limite''.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[limitabile]]

+ * [[limitamento]]

+ * [[limitare]]

+ * [[limitatamente]]

+ * [[limitatezza]]

+ * [[limitativo]]

+ * [[limitato]]

+ * [[limitazione]]

+ * [[delimitare]]

+ * [[delimitazione]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[limitarsi]]

+ * [[limitrofo]]

+ * [[limine]]

+ * [[la|līmes]]

+ * [[fr|limite]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Al limite'' means “at most, if it comes to that”.^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Gabrielli 2020) Plurals of the adjectival compounds stay invariable: ''casi limite''.^(Treccani 2011)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}