The stem of "limes", "limit"-, which can be seen in the genitive case, "limitis", marks it as the ancestor of an entire group of words in many languages related to Latin; for example, English ' or French '. The Latin noun "līmes" (; Latin  "") had a number of different meanings: a path or balk delimiting fields; a boundary line or marker; any road or path; any channel, such as a stream channel; or any distinction or difference. The term was also commonly used after the 3rd century AD to denote a military district under the command of a "dux limitis".