licham

• leccam (dialectal)

From Middle English licham, lichame, from Old English līċhama (“body”), from Proto-West Germanic *līkahamō, from Proto-Germanic *līkahamô, equivalent to like (“body”) +‎ hame (“covering, case”).

In Old English, līchama was the general term for "body," while līċ had come to mean a dead body specifically. Cognate with Scots lekame (“body”), West Frisian lichem (“body”), Dutch lichaam (“body”), German Leichnam (“body, corpse”), Danish legeme (“body”), Swedish lekamen (“body”), Icelandic líkami (“body”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɪt͡ʃəm/

licham (plural not attested)

1. (obsolete, rare or UK dialectal) The human body, especially when living.
   • 1973, Frank Kermode, ‎John Hollander, The Oxford Anthology of English Literature, volume 1, page 358:

     […] Nor a living for your licham that lief is to your soul.
     Believe not your licham, for a liar teaches him
     Which is the wretched world that wishes to betray you.

   • 1987, Romano Carlo Cerrone, ‎Piero Pignata, England & Co, page 51:

     For no lickerish living their licham to please.

   • 2018, Christina M. Fitzgerald, ‎John T. Sebastian, The York Corpus Christi Play:

     […] Me shames with my licham,
     For I am naked as methink.

• lich

licham

1. (Norfolk; Lincolnshire, West Riding) alternative form of likame