lichen

Forms

līchēn m (genitive līchēnos or līchēnis); third declension^[1] The accusative plural is līchēnas,^[2][3] and Georges records a by-form līchēna.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn, “tree moss; skin eruption”).^[4][5][6] The Greek word is connected with λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick”),^[1][7] from Proto-Indo-European *leyǵʰ- (“to lick”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Pliny the Elder's Natural History, both for a plant growing on rocks and for a skin disease, a kind of ringworm.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Pliny uses it for a kind of lichen, which he describes as growing on stones like moss, and by transfer for an eruption on the skin of people and animals, and for the horny knob on a horse's foreleg, which was used as a medicine.^[4][5][8] Martial speaks of sordidi lichenes, dirty eruptions of the skin.^[5] Georges notes that the native Latin word for the skin disease was mentagra.^[2]

In British Medieval Latin it named lichen and liverwort, and William Turner wrote that lichen “is called in Englishe liverwurte”.^[9] English used lichen for liverwort from about 1600, and in the botanical sense from 1715.^[10]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for a plant, a skin disease and the knob on a horse's leg.^[4][7]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it for skin eruptions.^[5][7]
• c. 1600 – English uses lichen for liverwort.^[10]
• 1715 – English borrows it in the botanical sense.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lichen or similar plant growing on rocks, sometimes identified as liverwort.^[4][5]
2. (medicine) A skin disease, ringworm or tetter.^[4][5][2]
3. The horny knob on the inside of a horse's foreleg, the chestnut.^[4][8]

Word family

• līchēnifōrmis

Related words

• English lichen

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com