lime

lime · noun, verb¹

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*h₂leyH-“to smear”
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*līmaz
3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*līm
4. Old English · inherited fromlīm
5. Middle English · inherited fromlyme
6. English todaylime

From Middle English lyme, lym, lime, from Old English līm, from Proto-West Germanic *līm, from Proto-Germanic *līmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- (“to smear”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Liem (“glue”), Dutch lijm (“glue”), German Leim (“glue”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish lim (“glue”), Faroese and Icelandic lím (“glue”), Latin limus (“mud”).

lime · noun²

1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*lindijō
2. Old English · inherited fromlind
3. Middle English · inherited fromlynde
4. English todaylime

Lime (17th c.) and line (16th c.) are alterations of obsolete lind, from Middle English lynde, from Old English lind, from Proto-Germanic *lindijō. The phonetic development is unusual, but it has been suggested that it began in compounds (loss of -d- perhaps before tree, the change to -m- before labials as in bark or wood). Doublet of linden, which see.

lime · noun, adjective³

1. Munda · derived fromlime
2. Proto-Malayo-Polynesian · derived from*limaw
3. Sanskrit · derived fromनिम्बू“lime”
4. Classical Persian · derived fromلِیمُو
5. Arabic · derived fromلِيمَة
6. Spanish · derived fromlima
7. French · borrowed fromlime
8. English todaylime

Borrowed from French lime, from Spanish lima, from Arabic لِيمَة (līma), from Classical Persian لِیمُو (līmū, līmō), from Sanskrit निम्बू (nimbū, “lime”), ultimately from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *limaw or Munda. Doublet of lemon.

lime · verb, noun⁴

Either a back-formation of limer or from the derogatory term limey, a term first given to British soldiers but also used by Trinidadians for American soldiers who used to hang out idle in Port of Spain during World War 2.

Words from the same roots