Limn vs Explain - What's the difference?
limn | explain |
To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
*
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
, author=, volume=100, issue=2, page=106
, magazine=(American Scientist)
, title= To give a valid excuse for some past behavior.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
, volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.
(obsolete) To unfold or make visible.
* (John Evelyn) (1620-1706)
In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between limn and explain
is that limn is (obsolete) to illuminate, as a manuscript while explain is (obsolete) to unfold or make visible.As verbs the difference between limn and explain
is that limn is to draw or paint; delineate while explain is to make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.limn
English
Usage notes
* Particularly used in arts journalism; not understood by significant portion of American public.The Sun goes out on a limn with unusual headline: Unusual word in front-page headline leaves some readers scratching their heads, Jill Rosen, The Baltimore Sun, September 7, 2010
Quotations
* (English Citations of "limn")Derived terms
* limnerReferences
explain
English
(Explanation)Verb
(en verb)- The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained .
Pixels or Perish, passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}
Fantasy of navigation, passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}
- The horse-chestnut isready to explain its leaf.