Etymology

liminary

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Today it means: Introductory or preparatory. Full definition →

French liminaire ← Latin līmināris ← Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃l-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*-mn̥
  2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*Heh₃l-“to bend, bow; elbow”
  3. Latin · derived fromlīmināris
  4. French · derived fromliminaire“introductory”
  5. English todayliminary

From French liminaire (“introductory”) from Latin līmināris, from līmen (“doorstep, threshold; doorway, entrance; beginning, commencement”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns). Līmen is possibly derived from līmus (“askew; sideways”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃l- (“to bend, bow; elbow”)) + -men (suffix forming neuter nouns of the third declension) (from Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ (suffix forming action nouns or result nouns from verbs)).

Words from the same roots

Latinlīmināris all →

liminal

Proto-Indo-European*Heh₃l- all →

sublimesubliminalliminal

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.