limb

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An arm, leg, or wing of a person or animal.

   He stretched his tired limbs after the long flight.

2. 2
   noun

   A large branch of a tree.

   A heavy limb broke off the oak during the storm.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Limb is an Old English word formerly spelled lim. The b was added in the 16th century, perhaps under the influence of words such as comb and dumb that had always ended in b. Its sense “branch of a tree” is the same word and survives figuratively in out on a limb.

From Middle English lyme, lim, from Old English lim (“limb, branch”), from Proto-West Germanic *limu, from Proto-Germanic *limuz (“branch, limb”). Cognate with Old Norse limr (“limb”). The spelling with the silent unetymological -b first arose in the late 1500s. Compare crumb.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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