limn

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*lewk-“bright; to shine; to see”
2. Latin · derived fromillūminō“to brighten, light up; to adorn; to make conspicuous”
3. Old French · derived fromenluminer“to brighten, light up; to give colour to; to illuminate (a manuscript)”
4. Middle English · inherited fromlimnen
5. English todaylimn

From Middle English limnen, limyne, lymm, lymn, lymne (“to illuminate (a manuscript)”), a variant of luminen (“to illuminate (a manuscript)”), short form of enluminen (“to shed light on, illuminate; to enlighten; to make bright or clear; to give colour to; to illuminate (a manuscript); to depict, describe; to adorn or embellish with figures of speech or poetry; to make famous, glorious, or illustrious”), from Old French enluminer (“to brighten, light up; to give colour to; to illuminate (a manuscript)”), from Latin illūminō (“to brighten, light up; to adorn; to make conspicuous”), from il- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside’)) + lūminō (“to brighten, illuminate; to reveal”) (from lūmen (“light; (poetic) brightness”) (from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to shine; to see”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).

Words from the same roots