lich
Like; resembling; equal.
Adjective
- Like; resembling; equal.
- 1386-90, John Gower, Confessio Amantis. Anon he let two cofres make / Of one semblance, and of one make, / So lich, that no lif thilke throwe, / That one may fro that other knowe.
- [He] rather joy'd to be than seemen sich, For both to be and seeme to him was labour lich. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC,...
Origin
From Middle English līke, līch (“like”); see like and -like for more. Compare -ly and -lich.
Forms
Noun
- A reanimated corpse or undead being; particularly an intelligent, undead spellcaster.
- It was a lich’s face – desiccated flesh tight over its skull. - 1974, Karl Edward Wagner, Sticks:
- A corpse or dead body.
- […] and that, as the chronicle states, a lich-way would be made through then, assembled his servants, and attempted to stop its progress as it was carried over a bridge. A scuffle ensued, and the body was thrown into...
- She saw him again that eventide, but then he was a reddened lich. - 1983, Poul Anderson, Time Patrolman (Sci-Fi), →ISBN:
Origin
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līką Proto-West Germanic *līk Old English līċ Middle English lich English lich Inherited from Middle English lich, from Old English līċ, from Proto-West Germanic *līk, from Proto-Germanic *līką, from Proto-Indo-European *leyg-.
Forms
Derived
demilich lich-field lich field lichfield lichgate lich-gate lich gate lich-house lich king lich-king lich lord lichlord lich-lord lich-wake lich way lichway lich-way lichwort lichyard lych-gate