liman

Satellite photo of limans along the Black Sea coast

From Russian лима́н (limán) or Ukrainian лима́н (lymán), from Turkic, compare Turkish liman (“port, harbor”). Ultimately from Ancient Greek λιμήν (limḗn, “harbor”).

• IPA^(key): /lɪˈmɑn/

liman (plural limans)

1. A wide estuary formed as a lagoon at the mouth of one or more rivers, where flow is constrained by a bar of sediments (created by either the current of a sea or a sediment-saturated river), especially in the Black Sea region.
   • 1918, Stephen Rudnicki, Ukraine, the Land and Its People: An Introduction to Its Geography, page 19:

     Only at a point where a river, a streamlet, even a balka (step-glen, ravine) opens into the sea, is the steep incline of the steppe-plateau broken. […] This sea-water lake is called liman in Ukrainian. Wherever a stream of great volume empties into a liman, the bar is severed at one or more places.

   • 1993 December 15, Danylo Husar Struk, Encyclopedia of Ukraine: Volume V: St-Z, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN:

     Its rising provided conditions for the formation of liman valleys along the coast. As well, meltwaters from the ice cap produced ponding, with excess water that either spilled over the low points of divides or flowed along the ice […]

   • 2016 September 28, Ruben Kosyan, The Diversity of Russian Estuaries and Lagoons Exposed to Human Influence, Springer, →ISBN, page 123:

     Fig.5.12 The Akhtanizovsky liman delta arm
     […] certain limans, particularly those fed by river water, continued to decline naturally, whereas the square area of swamps, contrastingly, continued to increase. The first significant anthropogenic changes in the size and natural regime of the limans and flooded areas were initially connected with artificial changes in flow direction […]

• Because liman mud was sometimes used therapeutically, some English dictionaries beginning in the 1870s have incorrectly defined liman as alluvial (estuarine/deltal) slime rather than the estuary itself that deposits the slime, sometimes deriving the word from French limon (“silt”) rather than from Russian; this is a ghost sense.

• liman in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

• Linam, Malin, Milan, lamin

Ultimately from Byzantine Greek λιμένιον (liménion), from Ancient Greek λιμήν (limḗn).

• IPA^(key): [liˈmɑn]
• Hyphenation: li‧man

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liman (definite accusative limannı, plural limanlar)

1. port, haven, harbor

• hava limanı (“airport”)

From Russian лима́н (limán).

liman

1. estuary
2. port, harbour, haven.

• Mirjejev, V. A.; Usejinov, S. M. (2002) Ukrajinsʹko-krymsʹkotatarsʹkyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary]‎, Simferopol: Dolya, →ISBN

liman

1. genitive singular of lima

• Malin, ilman, malin

liman

1. third-person plural present indicative of limar

• limam

Borrowed from Arabic إِمَام‎ (ʔimām).

• IPA^(key): /lìː.mân/
  • (Standard Kano Hausa) IPA^(key): [lìː.mâŋ]

lī̀mân m (plural lī̀mā̀mai, possessed form lī̀māmìn)

1. (Islam) imam
2. The equivalent of an imam in other religions; in Christianity, a pastor or priest.

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish لیمان‎ (liman), from Byzantine Greek λιμένιον (liménion), from Ancient Greek λιμήν (limḗn).

liman n (plural limanuri)

1. haven
2. port, harbor
3. bank
4. lagoon
5. estuary
6. coast

• (port, harbor): port
• (bank): țărm
• (lagoon): lagună
• (estuary): estuar
• (coast): coastă

liman

1. third-person plural present indicative of limar

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *lima, from Proto-Austronesian *lima.

liman

1. (anatomy) hand, arm

From Ottoman Turkish لیمان‎ (liman), from Byzantine Greek λιμένιον (liménion), from Ancient Greek λιμήν (limḗn).

• IPA^(key): /liˈmɑn/
• Rhymes: -mɑn

liman (definite accusative limanı, plural limanlar)

1. port, haven, harbor