The present paper looks into the lexical adaptations and evolutions related to limning in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, offering many stops and turns around Europe, although focusing more specifically on the links between England and France, the only two European countries with a significant tradition in portrait miniatures. It first traces the complex journey of words related to limning (limning, miniatura, miniature) through treatises in English and in translation between the second half of the 16 th century (i.e. the period when portrait miniatures appeared as separate works and objects, distinct from the production of illuminated manuscripts) and the 1640s which saw the word “miniature” progressively supersede that of “limning”. This then leads to the inquiry into the plausible parallels between the artists and authors; lexical choices and the evolving status of both limning and limners in early modern England. The chapter ends with the idea that this also brought about and accompanied technical innovations, either preceding or deriving from lexical expansion and adaptations. This short history of the words for limning thus contributes to the wider discussion on the international dimension of portrait miniatures.