the.com/limbo

the only game where you win by sinking lower than everyone else

means A state of uncertain waiting or in-between suspension where nothing is resolved — also the dance-game of bending backward to pass under a steadily lowering bar.

from Two threads twist together here. The 'in-between' sense comes from Latin 'limbus,' meaning an edge, hem, or border — the Church placed Limbo at the very rim of Hell, a borderland for souls neither saved nor damned. The dance is a separate, later arrival, traced to Trinidad in the West Indies, where 'limbo' is generally taken as a variant of 'limber,' meaning supple or loose-jointed — fitting for a body bending under that bar.

origin
Born in 1950s Trinidad funeral dances
record bar
World record clears under 6 inches
theology
Catholic Church quietly dropped it in 2007
physics
Demands backbend most spines outright refuse
meaning
Latin limbus means edge or border
for instance

limbo rock song — 1961 novelty hit by chubby checker that sparked the global limbo dancing craze

the.com · every word