limp
pronunciation
How to pronounce limp in British English:
UK [lɪmp]
How to pronounce limp in American English:
US [lɪmp]
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- Noun:
- the uneven manner of walking that results from an injured leg
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- Verb:
- walk impeded by some physical limitation or injury
- proceed slowly or with difficulty
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- Adjective:
- lacking in strength or firmness or resilience
- not firm
Word Origin
- limp
- limp: English has two words limp, which perhaps share a common ancestry. Neither is particularly old. The verb first crops up in the 16th century (until then the word for ‘walk lamely’ had been halt, which now survives, barely, as an adjective). It was probably adapted from the now obsolete adjective limphalt ‘lame’, a descendant of Old English lemphealt (which goes back ultimately to Indo-European *lomb-). The adjective limp is first recorded in the 18th century, and in view of the common meaning element ‘lack of firmness, infirmity’ it seems likely that it is related to the verb.
- limp (v.)
- 1560s, of unknown origin, perhaps related to Middle English lympen "to fall short" (c. 1400), which is probably from Old English lemphealt "halting, lame, limping," which has a lone cognate in the rare Middle High German limphin, and perhaps is from a PIE root meaning "slack, loose, to hang down" (cognates: Sanskrit lambate "hangs down," Middle High German lampen "to hang down"). Related: Limped; limping. As a noun, 1818, from the verb.
- limp (adj.)
- 1706, "flaccid, drooping," of obscure origin, perhaps related to limp (v.).