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LIMB

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 691 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LIMB . (I) (In O. Eng. Lim, cognate with the O. Nor. and Icel. limr, Swed. and See also:

Dan. Lem; probably the word is to be referred to a See also:root li- seen in an obsolete See also:English word " lith," a limb, and in the Ger. Glied), originally any portion or member of the See also:body, but now restricted in meaning to the See also:external members of the body of an See also:animal apart from the See also:head and See also:trunk, the legs and arms, or, in a See also:bird, the wings. It is sometimes used of the See also:lower limbs only, and is synonymous with " See also:leg." The word is also used of the See also:main branches of a See also:tree, of the projecting spurs of a range of mountains, of the arms of a See also:cross, &c. As a See also:translation of the See also:Lat. membrum, and with See also:special reference to the See also:church as the " body of See also:Christ," " limb " was frequently used by ecclesiastical writers of the 16th and 17th centuries of a See also:person as being a component See also:part of the church; cf. such expressions " limb of Satan," "limb of the See also:law," &c. From the use of membrum in See also:medieval Latin for an See also:estate dependent on another, the name " limb" is given to an outlying portion of another, or to the surbordinate members of the Cinque Ports, attached to one of the See also:principal towns; See also:Pevensey was thus a "limb " of See also:Hastings. (2) An edge or border, frequently used in scientific See also:language for the boundary of a See also:surface. It is thus used of the edge of the disk of the See also:sun or See also:moon, of the See also:expanded part of a petal or sepal in See also:botany, &c.

This word is a shortened See also:

form of " limbo " or " See also:limbus," Lat. for an edge, for the theological use of which see LIMB US.

End of Article: LIMB

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