Question: If something that is "sublime" is supreme, what is something that is just plain old "lime" ? 

Answer: As the previous answerer mentioned, sublime comes from the Latin word subliminis, which we can see from the related word subliminal. This word was formed by joining "sub," below or in some cases, at the foot of or at, with the word "limen," which means limit, threshold or door. Thus sublime means "at the limit" and subliminal means "below the threshold" or something like that. You were completely on the right track by noticing that since there is a prefix "sub," you should be able to take it off and get an un-modified word, but in this case, the word changed so much that it became meaningless in English.
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