A Word A Day : Limbo





Sunday, 25th May 2008 : Today's Word is ...


Limbo



( Noun )




Pronunciation : lím-bō


Definition:



1. a state in which somebody or something is neglected or is simply left in oblivion

2. In Roman Catholic theology, the place that is believed to be home to the souls of children who died before baptism and the souls of the righteous who died before Jesus Christ. Although they are barred from entry to heaven, they are not condemned to the eternal suffering of hell.

3. an intermediate place or state

4. a region or condition of oblivion or neglect


Etymology:


14th century - Latin - on the border (of hell) - form of limbus - border - edge


Synonyms:


uncertainty


Antonyms:


certainty, certitude, sureness, surety


Contextual Examples:


• A little fact is worth a whole limbo of dreams.

• Management kept her promotion in limbo for months.

• My lean runner's stomach has passed into the limbo of memory.

• They were both shadows and this was the unending limbo of toil.

• No ship is wholly bad and now that their bodies that had braved so many tempests have been blown off the face of the sea by a puff of steam, the evil and the good together into the limbo of things that have served their time, there can be no harm in affirming that in these vanished generations of willing servants there never has been one utterly unredeemable soul.


Related Words:



limbos : Noun - Plural


NOTE :

Our use of the word limbo to refer to states of oblivion, confinement or transition is derived from the theological sense of Limbo as a place where souls remain that cannot enter heaven, for example, unbaptized infants. Limbo in Roman Catholic theology is located on the border of Hell which explains the name chosen for it. The Latin word limbus having meanings such as an ornamental border to a fringe and a band or girdle was chosen by Christian theologians of the Middle Ages to denote this border region. English borrowed the word limbus directly, but the form that caught on in English limbo first recorded in a work composed around 1378, is from the ablative form of limbus, the form that would be used in expressions such as in limbō, in Limbo.




Enjoy this list and then get around for preparing your own list of words. There is no better way of boosting your words power. The most effective way to build your vocabulary is described in the page on Word Power. Educational research has discovered that your I.Q. is intimately related to your Word Power. Take a standard Vocabulary test and then an intelligent test, the result in both will be substantially the same. The more extensive your vocabulary, the better your chances of success, other things being equal- success in attaining your educational goals, success in moving ahead in your business or professional career, success in achieving your intellectual potential.

Previous Word| Next Word



A Word A Day Index


From Limbo to HOME PAGE