lich

See also: Lich, lích, lịch, and -lich

English

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lich

Wikipedia

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *leyg-

Proto-Germanic *līką

Proto-West Germanic *līk

Old English līċ

Middle English lich

English lich

(UK) IPA^(key): /lɪtʃ/
- (West Country, possibly obsolete) IPA^(key): /litʃ/^[1]
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Rhymes: -ɪtʃ
(Scotland) IPA^(key): /laɪx/

lich (plural liches or (with Scots pronunciation) lichs)

(fantasy, roleplaying games) A reanimated corpse or undead being; particularly an intelligent, undead spellcaster.
- 1974, Karl Edward Wagner, Sticks:
  It was a lich’s face – desiccated flesh tight over its skull.
(archaic, UK) A corpse or dead body. [from 9th c.]
- 1845, Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, page 35:
  […] 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 the water. The lich-way as not made ; but the Bishop of Exeter amply revenged himself for the proceedings.
- 1983, Poul Anderson, Time Patrolman (Sci-Fi), →ISBN:
  She saw him again that eventide, but then he was a reddened lich.

undead being

^ Joseph Wright, editor (1902), “LICH”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume III (H–L), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.

From Middle English līke, līch (“like”); see like and -like for more. Compare -ly and -lich.

lich (comparative more lich, superlative most lich)

(obsolete) 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.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 29:
  [He] rather joy'd to be than seemen sich, For both to be and seeme to him was labour lich.

lich

Golla, Victor et al. (1996), Hupa Language Dictionary Second Edition, Humboldt, California: Hoopa Valley Tribe