lichen

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līchēn, from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn), from λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick”). Originally used of liverwort; the modern sense first recorded 1715.

Pronunciation

• enPR: lī'kən, IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪ.kən/
• enPR: lĭ'chən, (also, especially in the UK) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪ.tʃən/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪkən, -ɪtʃən
• Homophones: liken, lycan

Noun

lichen (countable and uncountable, plural lichens or lichen)

1. Any of many symbiotic organisms, being associations of algae and fungi, often found as white or yellow-to-blue–green patches on rocks, old walls, etc.
   • 1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Lukannon”, in The Jungle Book, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC, page 122:

     The Beaches of Lukannon–the winter wheat so tall, / The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog drenching all!

   • 1895 May 7, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter XI, in The Time Machine: An Invention, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC:

     It was the same rich green that one sees on forest moss or on the lichen in caves: plants which like these grow in a perpetual twilight.

   • 1915, John Muir, chapter V, in Travels in Alaska:

     The nibble marks of the stone adze were still visible, though crusted over with scale lichens in most places.

2. (figurative) Something which gradually spreads across something else, causing damage.

   Synonym: cancer

   • 1912 January, Zane Grey, “Shadows on the Sage-slope”, in Riders of the Purple Sage , New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 202:

     Meanwhile, abiding a day of judgment, she fought ceaselessly to deny the bitter drops in her cup, to tear back the slow, the intangibly slow growth of a hot, corrosive lichen eating into her heart.

Hyponyms

• (symbiotic organism): macrolichen, microlichen

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• lichen on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• algae
• fungus
• Iceland moss
• moss
• reindeer moss

References

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lichen, from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li.kɛn/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

lichen m (plural lichens)

1. lichen

Derived terms

• lichen plan
• lichénique

Further reading

• “lichen”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• chelin

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈliː.kʰeːn/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈli.ken/,

Noun

līchēn m (genitive līchēnos or līchēnis); third declension

1. (literally) a cryptogamic species of vegetation growing on trees, lichen
2. (transferred sense, medicine) an eruption on the skin of men and beasts, a tetter, ringworm
   1. (and especially) a callous excrescence upon the leg of a horse, used as a medicine

Declension

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, normal variant or non-Greek-type).

Derived terms

• līchēnifōrmis

Related terms

• līchēna
• līchēnicos

Descendants

• English: lichen
• French: lichen
• Portuguese: líquen
• Spanish: liquen

References

• “līchēn”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• līchēn in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 909/3.
• “līchēn” on page 1,029/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)

Luxembourgish

Verb

lichen (third-person singular present licht, past participle gelicht, auxiliary verb hunn)

1. (transitive, slang) to kick out, to throw out, to sack

Synonyms

• erausgeheien
• lanteren
• schassen

1. (transitive) to lift (a little)
2. (reflexive, slang) to get up, to leave (as a guest), to get to one's feet
3. (reflexive) to lift (fog, mist)

Synonyms

• sech hiewen

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French lichen.

Noun

lichen m (plural licheni)

1. lichen

Declension