The corpus record — Latin

limbus

ornamental border, fringe

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Ordo Urbium Nobilium 1 · 9.56/10k
Panegyricus dictus Manlio Theodoro consuli 1 · 4.65/10k
Achilleis 2 · 2.78/10k
Psychomachia 1 · 1.67/10k
Tyranni Triginta 1 · 1.52/10k
Contra Symmachum 1 · 0.83/10k
Epistulae, Books VIII-IX 1 · 0.79/10k
Metamorphoses 4 · 0.52/10k
Thebais 2 · 0.32/10k
Res Gestae 2 · 0.16/10k
Aeneid 1 · 0.16/10k
Naturalis Historia 1 · 0.03/10k

What it meant

1. limbus — de Vaan

limbus 'ornamental border, fringe' [m, o] (Var.+; Varro also lembus) Derivatives: limbularius 'concerned with making fringes' (PL). PIE *lemb-o-, IE cognates: Skt. rambate (RV), lambate 'to hang down limply'; OE (ge)limpan 'to happen, succeed', Eng. limp [adj.] 'limp', MHG lampeny slampen 'to hang down limply'; ToB lyama, ToA lyam 'sat' [v. pret.]. Iimen In view of the phoneme *£, the very specific meaning of limbus … — [de Vaan, s.v. limbus, p. 355]

2. limbus — Lewis & Short

limbus, i, m.,

I a border that surrounds any thing, a hem, welt, edge, selvage, fringe; a belt, band, girdle.

I Lit.: Sidoniam picto chlamydem circumdata limbo, Verg. A. 4, 137; id. ib. 2, 616 (this the better read., others nimbo): indutus chlamydem Tyriam, quam limbus obibat Aureus, Ov. M. 5, 51; id. ib. 6, 127; 2, 734; Stat. Achill. 1, 330: frontem limbo velata pudicam, with a headband, fillet, Claud. Cons. Mall. Theod. 118; cf.: imminuerent frontes limbis, Arn. 2, 72: picto discingit pectora limbo, with a girdle, belt, Stat. Th. 6, 367.—

II Transf. *

A The zodiac: extra limbum XII. signorum, Varr. R. R. 2, 3, 7; id. ap. Prob. ad Verg. E. 6, 31.—

B A noose, snare, for catching animals, Grat. Cyn. 25.

3. limbus — Walde–Hofmann

limbus, -; m. „Besatz am Kleide; Saum; Randschnur, Binde* u. dgl. (seit Varro, rom.; limbätus „verbrämt“ Ser. h. Aug, lim-. 1. imen — limes. 803 bulärius „Bordürenmacher“ Plaut. Aul. 519): aus *lembos (zum Lautl. s. Sommer Hb.? 57, vgl. nimbus), zu ai. lámbott „hängt, sinkt, fallt, hängt sich an, klammert sich an“, Jambah „herabhängend, lang. groß“, lambana- „herabhängend“, Subst. „Halsschmuck ; Phlegma*, mhd. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. limbus, p. 834]

In the wild

limbo Ausonius, Ordo Urbium Nobilium 7.9
limbo Claudian, Panegyricus dictus Manlio Theodoro consuli 1.118
limbo Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.593
limbis Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 16.10.8
limbo Sidonius Apollinaris, Epistulae, Books VIII-IX 8.1.p1
limbo Statius, Thebais 6.367

6 of 18 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. limbus (scan pp. 355-356; entry #916). Root candidates: *lembH-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. limbus (scan p. 383; entry #6053).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. limbus (scan pp. 834-835; entry #1552).

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.