lichen

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English

Lichen growing on a rock.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin līchēn (“ringworm”), from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn).

Pronunciation

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 patches on 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, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, ch XI
      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, Travels in Alaska, ch V
      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

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

something which spreads across something else, causing damage — see cancer

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “lichen”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 “lichen”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 “lichen”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Noun

lichen m (plural lichens)

  1. lichen

Derived terms

Further reading

Anagrams

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn).

Pronunciation

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).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative līchēn līchēnes
līchēnēs
Genitive līchēnos
līchēnis 		līchēnum
Dative līchēnī līchēnibus
Accusative līchēna
līchēnem 		līchēnas
līchēnēs
Ablative līchēne līchēnibus
Vocative līchēn līchēnes
līchēnēs

Derived terms

Descendants

  • English: lichen
  • French: lichen
  • Galician: lique
  • 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)
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