Word of the Week

[TotallyOz]

Ran across a word that I needed to know the meaning of and had to find some research on it.

 

limn \LIM\, transitive verb:

1. To depict by drawing or painting.

2. To portray in words; to describe.

 

Oh, yes, I write, as I limn the familiar perfections of his profile, "you look very well."

-- Kimberly Elkins, "What Is Visible", The Atlantic, March 2003

 

In telling these people's stories Mr. Butler draws upon the same gifts of empathy and insight, the same ability to limn an entire life in a couple of pages.

-- Michiko Kakutani, "Earthlings May Endanger Your Peaceful Rationality", New York Times, March 10, 2000

 

But used faithfully and correctly, language can "limn the actual, imagined and possible lives of its speakers, readers, writers."

-- John Darnton, "In Sweden, Proof of The Power Of Words", New York Times, December 8, 1993

 

Limn is from Middle English limnen, alteration of luminen, from enluminen, from Medieval French enluminer, from Late Latin illuminare, "to illuminate," ultimately from Latin lumen, "light."

[Guest laurence]

To me it sounds like a dirty word, something lesbians would do. Limning instead of rimming.

[Guest]

To me it sounds like a dirty word, something lesbians would do. Limning instead of rimming.

 

LOL That is good. I'll tell my lesbian cousin that.

[Guest laurence]

LOL That is good. I'll tell my lesbian cousin that.

 

Well then, if she is a lesbian, don't just tell her, limn her!