lichen

English

Lichen growing on a rock.

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • enPR: lī'kən, IPA(key): /ˈlaɪ.kn̩/[1][2][3]
  • (UK, chiefly) IPA(key): /ˈlɪtʃ.n̩/[1][2][3]
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪkən, -ɪtʃən
  • Homophone: liken

Noun

lichen (countable and uncountable, plural lichens or lichen)

  1. Any of many symbiotic organisms, being associations of fungi and algae; often found as white or yellow patches on old walls, etc.
    • 1894 — Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, Lukannon
      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. (figuratively) Something which spreads across something else, causing damage.
    • 1912, Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage, Chapter 15
      Meanwhile, abiding a day of judgment, she fought ceaselessly to deny the bitter drops in her cup, to tear back the slow, the intangibly slow growth of a hot, corrosive lichen eating into her heart.

Synonyms

  • (something which spreads): cancer

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

  1. 1 2 “lichen” in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
  2. 1 2 “lichen” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  3. 1 2 “lichen” (US) / “lichen” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /li.kɛn/
  • Audio(file)

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, Greek type.
Case Singular Plural
nominative līchēn līchēnes
genitive līchēnos līchēnum
dative līchēnī līchēnibus
accusative līchēna līchēnas
ablative līchēne līchēnibus
vocative līchēn līchēnes
 Third declension.
Case Singular Plural
nominative līchēn līchēnēs
genitive līchēnis līchēnum
dative līchēnī līchēnibus
accusative līchēnem līchēnēs
ablative līchēne līchēnibus
vocative līchēn līchēnēs

Derived terms

  • līchēna
  • līchēnicos

Descendants

References

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