likame
Middle English
FWOTD – 8 December 2025
Alternative forms
- licame, licham, lickham, likam, lycam, lycame, lykame, lykhame; lichame (Early Middle English)
- licam, liccame, lickam, lygham, lyghame (Northern); licome, lichome, lychome (West Midland)
Etymology
Inherited from Old English līchama,[1] from Proto-West Germanic *līkahamō, from Proto-Germanic *līkahamô; equivalent to lich (“body”) + hame (“skin”).
For the development of the sequence /k.h/ into either /k/ or /x/, potentially compare Michel (“Michael”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈlikˌ(h)aːm(ə)/, /ˈliˌxaːm(ə)/, /ˈliː-/[2]
- IPA(key): /ˈlikˌ(h)ɔ̞ːm(ə)/, /ˈliː-/ (West Midland)
Noun
likame (plural likames) (Early Middle English or poetic and chiefly Northern or West Midland)
- The human body, especially if living.
- c. 1378-9, [William Langland], “Paſſus pͥm᷒ de vıſıone”, in Lıber de petro plowman (L, B-text), London, published c. 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 þı lıkam· foꝛ a lyer hım techeth
- It isn't at all good for the spirit that the gut demands, / or sustenance for your body, since a liar teaches it.
- (rare) Bodily existence or presence.
Descendants
- Middle Scots: likame, lekame
- >? Scots: lingcan (hapax)
References
- ^ “lī̆chame, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ Strandberg, Otto (1919), “licam”, in The rime-vowels of Cursor mundi; a phonological and etymological investigation[1], Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri-A.-B., →OCLC, § 118, page 66.