liquen

Forms

liquen m (plural líquenes)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowed from Latin līchēn (“lichen”).^[2][1][3] Corominas thinks it came into Spanish through French lichen, current in French since 1545, since Terreros refers expressly to the French word.^[4] The DHLF records the French word as lichine in 1363, for a skin eruption, and in the botanical sense from 1546.^[5]

The Latin word is from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn), which meant both “lichen” and a skin disease, “leprosy” or “tetter”.^[4][3][6][7] The Greek noun comes from λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick”), as “the one that licks”, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *leyǵʰ- (“to lick”).^[8][1][9] Gómez de Silva and the DHLF explain the image: the lichen, like the skin disease, spreads over its support as if licking it.^[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH and the BDELC take the first record from Terreros (1765–1783); the Academy admitted the word in 1843, not yet in 1817.^[4][3] The earliest text in the CDH is Jovellanos's description of the castle of Bellver (c. 1806), which mentions las varias especies de liquen o musco que cubren sus paredes “the various kinds of lichen or moss that cover its walls”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The 19th-century dictionaries describe the lichen as a parasitic plant of rocks, walls and bark, some kinds used as food, others in dyeing or in medicine, like the Iceland lichen.^[11][12] A pharmacy list of Santo Domingo in 1819 already has lichen islandiense.^[13] The Academy called it a cryptogam made of homogeneous cells in 1899, and today defines it as the symbiosis of a fungus with single-celled algae.^[14][2] Medicine keeps the old Greek sense: the DTME records liquen also as an inflammatory skin disease.^[15]

Timeline

• 1765–1783 – Terreros, the first record, with a reference to French.^[3][4]
• c. 1806 – Jovellanos writes of lichen or moss on the walls of Bellver.^[10]
• 1819 – lichen islandiense among medicines in Santo Domingo.^[13]
• 1843 – first in the Academy's dictionary.^[4]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin lichen.^[16]
• 1899 – the Academy defines it as a cryptogam.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) A lichen: an organism formed by the symbiosis of a fungus with single-celled algae, growing in damp places on rocks or bark as grey, brown, yellow or reddish crusts or scales: Las piedras del puente estaban cubiertas de liquen.^[2][17][1]
2. (medicine) An inflammatory skin disease that may also affect the mucous membranes.^[15]

Related words

• Latin lichen
• Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn)

Usage notes

The plural is líquenes, with a written accent.^[1] Liquen islándico or liquen de Islandia is Iceland moss (Cetraria islandica), once much used in pharmacy.^[2][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. liquen
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 663
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. lichen
6. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. līchēn
8. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
11. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá
12. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez
13. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. lichen
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía
15. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies)
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos