Limes
/ˈlaɪ.miːz/noun
A boundary or frontier, especially the fortified border of the Roman Empire.
Did you know?In Roman Latin, limes could mean a path, a boundary line, or a frontier fortification, and it gave English the word for an imperial border zone rather than just a simple “limit.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*lei-
“to bend, lean, or turn aside”
Latin
Latin
limes
“a boundary line, border path, or frontier”
Late Latin
Latin
limes
“the fortified frontier of the Roman Empire”
Modern English
English
limes
“Roman border regions; also used historically in scholarly contexts for frontiers”