Meanings
comparative more liminary · superlative most liminary
- archaicIntroductory or preparatory.
Closely connected to the epigrammatic form of entries in alba are poems that serve as prefatory or postfatory material of early modern prints. Harm-Jan van Dam dedicates his article to this kind of liminary poetry.
2017, Christoph Pieper, “Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Monasteriensis: Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies (Münster 2012). Astrid Steiner-Weber and Karl A. E. Enenkel, eds. Acta Conventus Neo-Latini 15. Leiden: Brill, 2015. xxxvi + 632 pp. $299.”, in Renaissance Quarterly, volume 70, number 1, University of Chicago Press, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 253
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*-mn̥
- Proto-Indo-European*Heh₃l-“to bend, bow; elbow”
- Latinlīmināris
- Frenchliminaire“introductory”
- Englishliminary
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)).
More words from French, Latin, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Spanish liminar
- liminarTranslations
Cite this entry
liminary. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/liminary
“liminary.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/liminary. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “liminary,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/liminary.
Source: liminary on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.