- limit (n.)
- late 14c., "boundary, frontier," from O.Fr. limite "a boundary," from L. limitem (nom. limes) "a boundary, embankment between fields, border," related to limen "threshold." Colloquial sense of "the very extreme, the greatest degree imaginable" is from 1904. The verb is late 14c., from O.Fr. limiter, from L. limitare "to bound, limit, fix," from limes. In British company names, Limited (abbrev. Ltd.), 1855, is short for limited liability company, one in which the liability of partners is limited, usually to the amount of their capital investment.