limbus
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (1)limbi
- a border or edge of any of various body parts distinguished by color or structureType of structure, anatomical structure
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: L. limbus border, edge in limbo on the border. Cf. Limb border.
1. Scholastic Theol. An spiritual region where certain classes of souls were supposed to await the last judgment.
As far from help as Limbo is from bliss.— William Shakespeare
A Limbo large and broad, since called The Paradise of fools.— John Milton
☞ The limbus patrum was considered as a place for the souls of good men who lived before the coming of our Savior. The limbus infantium was said to be a similar place for the souls of unbaptized infants. To these was added, in the popular belief, the limbus fatuorum, or fool's paradise, regarded as a receptacle of all vanity and nonsense.
2. Hence: Any real or imaginary place of restraint or confinement; a prison; as, to put a man in limbo.
3. Hence: A state of waiting, or uncertainty, in which final judgment concerning the outcome of a decision is postponed, perhaps indefinitely; neglect for an indefinite time; as, the proposal was left in limbo while opponents and proponents refused to compromise.
4. Anatomy A border or margin; as, the limbus of the cornea.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: GCIDE editors