limn

Etymology

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)).

verb

1. (transitive, also figurative) To draw or paint; to delineate.
   Who then to frail Mortality ſhall truſt, / But limns in Water, or but writes in Duſt. a. 1627, Francis Bacon, “[Poems Found among the Papers of Sir Henry Wotton.] The World.”, in Henry Wotton, edited by Izaac Walton [i.e., Izaak Walton], Reliquiæ Wottonianæ: Or, A Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems; with Characters of Sundry Personages: And Other Incomparable Pieces of Language and Art.[…], 4th edition, London: Printed for B[enjamin] Tooke,[…], and T[homas] Sawbridge[…], published 1685, →OCLC, page 397
   Then the Painter, according to the pattern of ſome living thing, portraieth [draweth out] the picture groſly; afterward he reſembleth it to the life, and with his pencil limneth it with different painting colors. 1652, J[ohn] A[mos] Comenius, “Of Opticks [Eye-craft,] and Painting”, in Tho[mas] Horn[e], transl., edited by Joh[n] Robotham, W[illiam] D[ugard], and G. P., Janua Linguarum Reserata: Sive, Omnium Scientiarum & Linguarum Seminarium: […] = The Gate of Languages Unlocked: Or, a Seed-plot of All Arts and Tongues; Containing a Ready Way to Learn the Latine and English Tongue.[…], London: Printed by Edw[ard] Griffin, and Wil[liam] Hunt, for Thomas Slater,[…], →OCLC, paragraph 770
   Thou limnest well, / Were I to paint, I should shew you happy. 1846, Charles Devonshire, The Sorceress of Saragossa; a Play, in Five Acts, Falmouth, Cornwall: Printed by Fred H. Earle,[…], →OCLC, act II, scene i, page 23
   Read books which are in french and Latin, for so you may retain and increase your knowledge in Latin: some times draw and limn and practise perspective. 1 November 1661, Thomas Browne, “[Domestic Correspondence.] Dr. Browne to His Son Thomas.—Norwich, Nov. 1, [1661.]”, in Simon Wilkin, editor, The Works of Sir Thomas Browne (Bohn’s Antiquarian Library), volume III, London: Henry G[eorge] Bohn, published 1852, →OCLC, page 395
   [S]he laughs—in golden tones; she sleeps—like a fragrant lily; she dresses—limning her eyebrows like those of the silkworm moth. 1905, Herbert A[llen] Giles, “Childbirth, Childhood, and the Position of Woman”, in Adversaria Sinica, number 1, Shanghai: Messrs. Kelly & Walsh, Ltd., →OCLC, page 377
   As he looked up at the rim of the hole, faintly limned in the moonlight, he mused that this searching feeling of his was perhaps jealousy. 1964, Kōbō Abe [pseudonym; Kimifusa Abe], chapter 30, in E. Dale Saunders, transl., The Woman in the Dunes: Translated from the Japanese, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →OCLC; 1st Vintage International edition, New York, N.Y.: Vintage International, Vintage Books, April 1991, pages 226–227
   In telling these people's stories Mr. [Robert Olen] Butler draws upon the same gifts of empathy and insight, the same ability to limn an entire life in a couple of pages, […] 10 March 2000, Michiko Kakutani, “Earthlings may endanger your peaceful rationality [review of Mr. Spaceman (2000) by Robert Olen Butler]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2015-05-27
   And in her mind's eye, Roland had been exactly such a man as this—tall, dark, foreboding even, with a strong jaw that bespoke a character worth knowing, and intelligence agleam in his eyes. As if to reaffirm her imagination, the sun broke through the trees to limn his broad shoulders with gold. 2014 October, Karen Hawkins, chapter 2, in The Prince who Loved Me, 1st Pocket Books paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, page 9
   Still, though their terminology changed and their analysis developed, the model is limned fairly clearly as early as 1845–46, in the co-written The German Ideology. 2022, China Miéville, chapter 2, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, →OCLC
2. (transitive, obsolete) To illuminate, as a manuscript; to decorate with gold or some other bright colour.
   Some of her Elizabeth Barton's] Revelations were no better than ſilly Tales: Such was a certain Tale of Mary Magdalen, delivering her a Letter from Heaven, that was limned with golden Letters: which indeed was written by a Monk of St. Auguſtines, Canterbury: and another at Calais. 1721, John Strype, chapter XXV, in Ecclesiastical Memorials; Relating Chiefly to Religion, and the Reformation of It, and the Emergencies of the Church of England, under King Henry VIII. King Edward VI. and Queen Mary the First. […] In Three Volumes.[…], volume I, London: Printed for John Wyat,[…], →OCLC, book I, page 182