E. Cobham Brewer 18101897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Limner.
A drawer, a painter, an artist. A contraction of illuminator, or rather lumenier (one who illuminates manuscripts).
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The limner, or illuminer throws us back on a time when the illumination of MSS. was a leading occupation of the painter.Trench: On the Study of Words, lecture iv. p. 171.