limn

See also: limn-

English

WOTD – 23 August 2019

Alternative forms

• limne (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English limnen, limyne, lymm, lymn, lymne (“to illuminate (a manuscript)”), a variant of luminen (“to illuminate (a manuscript)”), short form of enluminen (“to shed light on, illuminate; to enlighten; to make bright or clear; to give colour to; to illuminate (a manuscript); to depict, describe; to adorn or embellish with figures of speech or poetry; to make famous, glorious, or illustrious”), from Old French enluminer (“to brighten, light up; to give colour to; to illuminate (a manuscript)”), from Latin illūminō (“to brighten, light up; to adorn; to make conspicuous”), from il- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside’)) + lūminō (“to brighten, illuminate; to reveal”) (from lūmen (“light; (poetic) brightness”) (from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to shine; to see”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: lĭm, IPA^(key): /lɪm/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪm
• Homophones: lim, limb

Verb

limn (third-person singular simple present limns, present participle limning, simple past and past participle limned)

1. (transitive, also figuratively) To draw or paint; to delineate.

   Synonym: depict

   • a. 1627, Francis Bacon, “[Poems Found among the Papers of Sir Henry Wotton.] The World.”, in Henry Wotton, edited by Izaac Walton [i.e., Izaak Walton], Reliquiæ Wottonianæ: Or, A Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems; with Characters of Sundry Personages: And Other Incomparable Pieces of Language and Art. […], 4th edition, London: Printed for B[enjamin] Tooke, […], and T[homas] Sawbridge […], published 1685, →OCLC, page 397:

     Who then to frail Mortality ſhall truſt, / But limns in Water, or but writes in Duſt.

   • 1652, J[ohn] A[mos] Comenius, “Of Opticks [Eye-craft,] and Painting”, in Tho[mas] Horn[e], transl., edited by Joh[n] Robotham, W[illiam] D[ugard], and G. P., Janua Linguarum Reserata: Sive, Omnium Scientiarum & Linguarum Seminarium: […] = The Gate of Languages Unlocked: Or, a Seed-plot of All Arts and Tongues; Containing a Ready Way to Learn the Latine and English Tongue. […], London: Printed by Edw[ard] Griffin, and Wil[liam] Hunt, for Thomas Slater, […], →OCLC, paragraph 770:

     Then the Painter, according to the pattern of ſome living thing, portraieth [draweth out] the picture groſly; afterward he reſembleth it to the life, and with his pencil limneth it with different painting colors.

   • 1846, Charles Devonshire, The Sorceress of Saragossa; a Play, in Five Acts, Falmouth, Cornwall: Printed by Fred H. Earle, […], →OCLC, act II, scene i, page 23:

     Thou limnest well, / Were I to paint, I should shew you happy.

   • 1661 November 1, Thomas Browne, “[Domestic Correspondence.] Dr. Browne to His Son Thomas.—Norwich, Nov. 1, [1661.]”, in Simon Wilkin, editor, The Works of Sir Thomas Browne (Bohn’s Antiquarian Library), volume III, London: Henry G[eorge] Bohn, published 1852, →OCLC, page 395:

     Read books which are in french and Latin, for so you may retain and increase your knowledge in Latin: some times draw and limn and practise perspective.

   • 1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Five English Poets. II. William Blake. (To Frederick Shields, on His Sketch of Blake’s Work-room and Death-room, 3, Fountain Court, Strand.)”, in Ballads and Sonnets, London: Ellis and White, […], →OCLC, stanza 4, page 314, lines 9–10:

     This cupboard, Holy of Holies, held the cloud / Of his soul writ and limned; […]

   • 1905, Herbert A[llen] Giles, “Childbirth, Childhood, and the Position of Woman”, in Adversaria Sinica, number 1, Shanghai: Messrs. Kelly & Walsh, Ltd., →OCLC, page 377:

     [S]he laughs—in golden tones; she sleeps—like a fragrant lily; she dresses—limning her eyebrows like those of the silkworm moth.

   • 1964, Kōbō Abe [pseudonym; Kimifusa Abe], chapter 30, in E. Dale Saunders, transl., The Woman in the Dunes: Translated from the Japanese, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →OCLC; 1st Vintage International edition, New York, N.Y.: Vintage International, Vintage Books, April 1991, →ISBN, pages 226–227:

     As he looked up at the rim of the hole, faintly limned in the moonlight, he mused that this searching feeling of his was perhaps jealousy.

   • 2000 March 10, Michiko Kakutani, “Earthlings may endanger your peaceful rationality [review of Mr. Spaceman (2000) by Robert Olen Butler]”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 May 2015:

     In telling these people's stories Mr. [Robert Olen] Butler draws upon the same gifts of empathy and insight, the same ability to limn an entire life in a couple of pages, […]

   • 2014 October, Karen Hawkins, chapter 2, in The Prince who Loved Me, 1st Pocket Books paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 9:

     And in her mind's eye, Roland had been exactly such a man as this—tall, dark, foreboding even, with a strong jaw that bespoke a character worth knowing, and intelligence agleam in his eyes. As if to reaffirm her imagination, the sun broke through the trees to limn his broad shoulders with gold.

   • 2022, China Miéville, chapter 2, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, →OCLC:

     Still, though their terminology changed and their analysis developed, the model is limned fairly clearly as early as 1845–46, in the co-written The German Ideology.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To illuminate, as a manuscript; to decorate with gold or some other bright colour.

   Synonym: (to illuminate (a manuscript)) enlimn

   • 1721, John Strype, chapter XXV, in Ecclesiastical Memorials; Relating Chiefly to Religion, and the Reformation of It, and the Emergencies of the Church of England, under King Henry VIII. King Edward VI. and Queen Mary the First. […] In Three Volumes. […], volume I, London: Printed for John Wyat, […], →OCLC, book I, page 182:

     Some of her [Elizabeth Barton's] Revelations were no better than ſilly Tales: Such was a certain Tale of Mary Magdalen, delivering her a Letter from Heaven, that was limned with golden Letters: which indeed was written by a Monk of St. Auguſtines, Canterbury: and another at Calais.

Derived terms

• dislimn
• enlimn
• limner
• limning (noun)
• unlimned

 

Translations

to draw — see also draw

• French: dessiner (fr)

to paint — see also paint

• French: peindre (fr)

to delineate — see also delineate

• French: dépeindre (fr)

to illuminate, as a manuscript — see also illuminate

• French: enluminer (fr)