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Allow us to shed some light on the history of limn, a word with lustrous origins. Limn traces to the Anglo-French verb aluminer and ultimately to the Latin illuminare, which means "to illuminate." Its use as an English verb dates from the days of Middle English; at first, limn referred to the action of illuminating (that is, decorating) medieval manuscripts with gold, silver, or brilliant colors. William Shakespeare extended the term to painting in his poem Venus and Adonis: "Look when a painter would surpass the life / In limning out a well-proportioned steed...."
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Examples of limn in a Sentence
Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2023
The soft sunlight illuminates sturdy wood pews, limning swaying worshipers in white gold.
—Aj Willingham, CNN, 15 Apr. 2023
Last Summer in the City seems to limn his own life: Like Calligarich, the novel’s protagonist, Leo Gazarra, leaves Milan for Rome and a writing job, and when that job disappears, spends his summer days at the beach and his nights drifting from party to party, woman to woman.
—Vogue, 29 May 2021
The adjacent desperations of the Emory family are meant to limn the material and psychological effects of living under the threat of anti-Blackness in America.
—Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 14 Apr. 2021
Nonetheless, Democrats want to be perceived as favoring virtually universal suffrage, and to limn their conservative and Republican opposition as favoring vote suppression.
—Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 3 Nov. 2020
Her poems, which have appeared in The New Yorker for over thirty years, limn the legacies of history, in her home country and beyond, and reckon especially with the repression of women’s accomplishments, realities, and inner lives.
—Hannah Aizenman, The New Yorker, 29 Apr. 2020
Also stuffed not inelegantly between the microcosmic doings are several larger incidents that limn the bloody and brutal history of the two centuries, including South American totalitarianism, European pogroms and the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina.
—Washington Post, 2 Feb. 2020
Every eloquent expanse of empty wall is limned by a trill of thin stripes defining doorjambs, drawn curtains and window frames.
—Washington Post, 28 Nov. 2019
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'limn.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Limn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/limn. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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