Limn

[Dr. Goodword]

• limn •

Pronunciation: lim • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: To sketch out, to outline in detail, literally or figuratively.

Notes: This lovely word is made up mostly of three of the most beautiful consonants in English (see The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English, p. 9), called 'sonorants' for their sonorant sounds. This is a word that did not get along with its family (that of illuminate) and went out on its own to become a wholly different word. It is now completely Anglicized, but hasn't had time to produce a family of its own.

In Play: The literal sense of today's word is "to sketch": "As Meta sat across the table sipping her wine, Winfred limned the elegant features of her face on his linen napkin." In the figurative sense, this word is often accompanied by in or out: "As she sat there in the candlelight, Winfred also limned out his plans for their wedding and their life together thereafter."

Word History: Today's Good Word is the descendant of Middle English limnen "illuminate", as to illuminate a manuscript, to draw decorative pictures around the first word and in the margins. This meaning evaporated in the 17th century. Limn is a reduction of lumine, itself a reduction of illuminate, hence it refers to illumination in the sense of sketching pictures on a scroll or handwritten manuscript. The root goes back to Latin lumen, lumin- "light", the result of Proto-Indo-European leuk- "light" with a -men suffix. The Germanic languages added a -t suffix, which produced German Licht and English light. The Slavic languages apparently avoided suffixation, resulting in Russian luch' "ray". (At this point I would like to limn in a hint of my gratitude to Lynn Morris for suggesting today's Good Word.)

[George Kovac]

I’ve always admired the word “limn.” As the good Dr Goodword notes, its sound is lovely.

And its meanings can be so evocative: I think of medieval monks limning manuscripts with beautiful images glittering in reds and golds. Or “limn” can present a more complex image that is simultaneously beautiful and disturbing, as in this quote (it’s the first time I encountered the word in print): “They kept as much as possible to the trees, with the dusting of snow limning the trunks on one side, the side where the wind was coming, raising a blinding cloud and stinging their faces.” Richard Bausch, “Peace” (2008) page 82.

An additional reason to admire the word is that “limn” can be bookended with another obscure, arresting word that is its antonym: “adumbrate.” When “adumbrate” was the Good Word of the day five years ago, Dr Goodword composed this usage, a seasonal image that nicely complements Bausch’s limned trees: “The first colored leaves of autumn adumbrate the onslaught of winter.”