FromMiddle Englishlyme,lim, fromOld Englishlim(“limb, branch”), fromProto-West Germanic*limu, fromProto-Germanic*limuz(“branch, limb”). Cognate withOld Norselimr(“limb”).
The spelling with the silentunetymological-b first arose in the late 1500s. Comparecrumb.
limb (plurallimbs)
- A majorappendage of human or animal, used forlocomotion (such as anarm,leg orwing).
c.1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe],Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published1592,→OCLC; reprinted asTamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press,1973,→ISBN,Act III, scene iii:UUhoſe hands are made to gripe a warlike Lance—
Their ſhoulders broad, for complet armour fit,
Theirlims more large and of a bigger ſize
Than all the brats yſprong fromTyphons loins:
1914 November,Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, inMunsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.:The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published1915,→OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy),pages377–378:Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with[…] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfinlimbs.
- Abranch of a tree.
- Synonym:bough
- (archery) The part of thebow, from thehandle to the tip.
- An elementary piece of themechanism of alock.
- A thing or person regarded as a part or member of, or attachment to, something else.
1814 July 7, [Walter Scott],Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume(please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […]James Ballantyne and Co. forArchibald Constable and Co.; London:Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown,→OCLC:That littlelimb of the devil has cheated the gallows.
- Short forlimb of Satan(“a wicked or mischievous child”).
major appendage of human or animal
- Afrikaans:ledemaat (af)
- Albanian:gjymtyrë (sq) m
- Arabic:طَرَف (ar) m(ṭaraf),عُضْو (ar) m(ʕuḍw)
- Egyptian Arabic:طرف m(ṭaraf),عضو m(ʕoḍu)
- Armenian:անդամ (hy)(andam)
- Aromanian:mãdular n
- Azerbaijani:üzv (az),ətraf (az)
- Bashkir:ағза(ağza)
- Belarusian:канцаві́на f(kancavína)
- Bengali:অঙ্গ (bn)(oṅgo)
- Breton:ezel (br) m
- Bulgarian:кра́йник m(krájnik)
- Burmese:အင်္ဂါ (my)(angga)
- Catalan:membre (ca)
- Chamicuro:ilapa
- Chinese:
- Mandarin:肢 (zh)(zhī),手腳 /手脚 (zh)(shǒujiǎo)
- Czech:končetina (cs) f,úd (cs) m
- Danish:lem (da) n
- Dhivehi:އަނގުން(aⁿgun̊)
- Dutch:lid (nl) n,lidmaat (nl) m orn,ledemaat (nl) m orn
- Esperanto:membro (eo)
- Estonian:jäse
- Finnish:raaja (fi),jäsen (fi)
- French:membre (fr) m,extrémité (fr) f
- Galician:extremidade (gl) f,membro (gl) m
- Georgian:კიდური(ḳiduri),ასო (ka)(aso)
- German:Glied (de) n,Gliedmaße (de) f,Extremitäten (de) f pl
- Gothic:𐌻𐌹𐌸𐌿𐍃 m(liþus)
- Greek:μέλος (el) n(mélos)
- Ancient:κῶλον n(kôlon),μέλος n(mélos)
- Hebrew:גַּף (he)(gaf)
- Hindi:अंग (hi) m(aṅg)
- Hungarian:végtag (hu)
- Icelandic:útlimur m,limur (is) m
- Indonesian:anggota (id)
- Irish:géag f
- Italian:membra (it) f,arto (it) m,tentacolo (it) m
- Japanese:肢 (ja)(し, shi),手足 (ja)(てあし, teashi)
- Kazakh:аяқ-қол(aäq-qol)
- Khmer:អង្គ (km)(ʔɑŋ)
- Korean:팔 (ko)(pal),팔다리(paldari),사지 (ko)(saji),지 (ko)(ji)
- Kyrgyz:кол-аяк(kol-ayak)
- Lao:ອົງ(ʼong)
- Latin:membrum m,artus m,articulus m
- Latvian:loceklis (lv) m
- Lithuanian:galūnė f
- Macedonian:екстремите́т m(ekstremitét),член m(člen),крак (mk) m(krak)
- Mongolian:үе (mn)(üje),мөч (mn)(möč)
- Navajo:atsʼáozʼaʼ
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål:lem (no) m
- Ojibwe:wadikwan
- Old Church Slavonic:оудъ(udŭ)
- Old English:liþ m,lim n
- Persian:اندام (fa)(andâm)
- Polish:kończyna (pl) f,odnoga (pl) f
- Portuguese:membro (pt) m
- Punjabi:ਅੰਗ (pa)(aṅga)
- Romanian:mădular (ro) n,ciolan (ro) n,membru (ro) n
- Russian:коне́чность (ru) f(konéčnostʹ),член (ru) m(člen)
- Sanskrit:अङ्ग (sa) m(aṅga)
- Scottish Gaelic:geug (gd) f
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic:уд m
- Roman:ud (sh) m
- Slovak:končatina (sk) f
- Slovene:okončina f
- Spanish:miembro (es),extremidad (es) f
- Swedish:lem (sv) c
- Tagalog:galamay
- Tajik:андом(andom)
- Tatar:әгъза (tt)(äğza)
- Thai:แขนขา (th)(kɛ̌ɛn kǎa),องค์ (th)(ong)
- Tocharian B:āmpär
- Turkish:uzuv (tr)
- Turkmen:çlen,agza (tk)
- Ukrainian:кінці́вка (uk) f(kincívka)
- Urdu:انگ m(ang)
- Uzbek:aʼzo (uz),qoʻl-oyoqlar pl
- Vietnamese:chi (vi)(scientific);no equivalent term in Vietnamese, but seechân tay (vi),tay chân (vi),chân (vi),tay (vi)
- Yiddish:אבֿר m(eyver)
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Translations to be checked
limb (third-person singular simple presentlimbs,present participlelimbing,simple past and past participlelimbed)
- (transitive) Toremove thelimbs from (an animal or tree).
Theylimbed the felled trees before cutting them into logs.
- (transitive) To supply withlimbs.
1667,John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, inParadise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […];[a]nd by Robert Boulter […];[a]nd Matthias Walker, […],→OCLC; republished asParadise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […],1873,→OCLC:Innumerous living creatures , perfect forms ,
Limb'd and full grown: out of the ground uprose
1859,Henry D. Thoreau,Walden:Man was not made so largelimbed and robust but that he must seek to narrow his world and wall in a space such as fitted him.
FromLatinlimbus(“border”).
limb (plurallimbs)
- (astronomy) Theapparentvisualedge of acelestialbody.
the solarlimb
1870, United States Naval Observatory,Reports on Observations of the Total Eclipse of the Sun, August, 7, 1869, page174:At 4h 57m 9s by my chronometer, (see Schedule B,) I observed with my telescope a small black speck on the precedinglimb of the sun's disk, at the precise point to which I had been for some minutes directing my attention.
2015, Ludmilla Kolokolova, James Hough, Anny-Chantal Levasseur-Regourd,Polarimetry of Stars and Planetary Systems, page449:Chandrasekhar (1946a, b) predicted that thelimb of a star will be polarized, because photons scattered at the limb and toward the observer experience a scattering angle of Θ ≈ 90°.
- (on a measuring instrument) Thegraduated edge of acircle orarc.
- (botany) Theborder or upper spreading part of amonopetalouscorolla, or of apetal orsepal;blade.
1945, “A new form of the moonvineCalonyction aculeatum with divided corolla limb, and length-of-day behavior and flowering of the common form”, inJournal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, volume35, number 2:The corollalimb of the moonvineCalonyction aculeatum is normally undivided.
