- licame,licham,lickham,likam,lycam,lykame,lykhame;lichame(Early Middle English)
- licam,liccame,lickam,lygham,lyghame(Northern);licome,lichome,lychome(West Midland)
Inherited fromOld Englishlīchama,[1] fromProto-West Germanic*līkahamō, fromProto-Germanic*līkahamô; equivalent tolich(“body”) +hame(“skin”).
For the development of the sequence/k.h/ into either/k/ or/x/, compareMichel(“Michael”).
- IPA(key): /ˈlikˌ(h)aːm(ə)/,/ˈliˌxaːm(ə)/,/ˈliː-/[2]
- IPA(key): /ˈlikˌ(h)ɔ̞ːm(ə)/,/ˈliː-/(West Midland)
likame (plurallikames)(Early Middle English or poetic and chiefly Northern or West Midland)
- Thehumanbody, especially ifliving.
c.1378-9, [William Langland], “Paſſus pͥm᷒ de vıſıone”, inLıber de petro plowman (L, B-text),London, publishedc.1395,folio 4, recto; republished as Hoyt N. Duggan,Ralph Hanna, editors,Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud misc. 581 (The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive; 6), SEENET,2014,→ISBN:It ıs nauȝt al gode to þe goſte· þat þe gutte axeþ / Ne lıflode to þılıkam· foꝛ a lyer hım techeth- It isn't at all good for the spirit that the gut demands, / or sustenance for yourbody, since a liar teaches it.
- (rare) Bodilyexistence orpresence.
- ^“lī̆chame,n.”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.
- ^Strandberg, Otto (1919), “licam”, inThe rime-vowels of Cursor mundi; a phonological and etymological investigation[1],Uppsala:Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri-A.-B.,→OCLC,§ 118,page66.
