lichen
English
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Latin līchēn, from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn), from λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick”). Originally used of liverwort; the modern sense first recorded 1715.
Pronunciation
[edit]- enPR: lī'kən, IPA(key): /ˈlaɪ.kən/[1][2][3]
- enPR: lĭ'chən, (also, especially in the UK) IPA(key): /ˈlɪtʃ.ən/[1][2][3]
Audio (UK): (file) - Rhymes: -aɪkən, -ɪtʃən
- Homophones: liken, lycan
Noun
[edit]lichen (countable and uncountable, plural lichens or lichen)
- Any of many symbiotic organisms, being associations of algae and fungi, often found as white or yellow-to-blue–green patches on rocks, 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 May 7, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter XI, in The Time Machine: An Invention, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC:
- 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, chapter V, in Travels in Alaska:
- The nibble marks of the stone adze were still visible, though crusted over with scale lichens in most places.
- (figurative) Something which gradually spreads across something else, causing damage.
- Synonym: cancer
- 1912 January, Zane Grey, “Shadows on the Sage-slope”, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 202:
- 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.
Hyponyms
[edit]- (symbiotic organism): macrolichen, microlichen
Derived terms
[edit]- antilichen
- antler lichen (Evernia cladonia)
- ascolichen (Ascholichenes)
- ball lichen (Sphaerophorus)
- basidolichen (Basidolichenes)
- beard lichen (Usnea barbata)
- blister lichen
- British soldiers lichen (Cladonia cristella)
- byssoid lichen
- cephalolichen
- chlorolichen
- cobblestone lichen (Acarospora)
- coral lichen (Sphaerophorus)
- corticolous lichen
- cracked lichen (Acarospora)
- crustose lichen
- crustose placodioid lichen
- cup lichen (Cladonia spp.)
- cyanolichen
- discolichen (Discolichenes)
- dog lichen (Peltigera canina)
- dust lichen (Chrysothrix or Lepraria spp.)
- earth lichen (esp., Baeomyces)
- edible lichen
- endolithic lichen
- epiphyllous lichen
- equine tropical lichen
- filamentous lichen
- firedot lichen (Caloplaca)
- foliose lichen
- fruticose lichen
- gelatinous lichen (Collemataceae)
- globe lichen
- glyphis lichen (Glyphis spp.)
- gold lichen (Caloplaca)
- horsehair lichen, horsetail lichen (Alectoria)
- Iceland lichen (Cetraria islandica)
- jelly lichen
- jewel lichen (Caloplaca)
- leaf lichen
- lecanorine lichen
- leprose lichen
- letter lichen (Graphis)
- lichenaceous
- lichenal
- lichened
- lichenic
- lichenicolous
- licheniform
- lichenin
- lichenism
- lichenist
- lichenivorous
- lichenization
- lichenize
- lichenless
- lichenlike
- lichen moth
- lichenographer
- lichenographic
- lichenographical
- lichenographist
- lichenography
- lichenoid
- lichenologist
- lichenology
- lichenometry
- lichenose
- lichenous
- lichen planus
- lichen sclerosus
- licheny
- lung lichen (Sticta pulmonacea)
- macrolichen
- manna lichen (Lecanora spp., Gyrophora esculenta)
- map lichen (Rhizocarpon geographicum)
- orange lichen (Caloplaca)
- pin lichen
- reindeer lichen (Cladonia rangiferina)
- rim lichen (Lecanora, Squamarina)
- saxicolous lichen
- script lichen (Graphis scripta)
- snow lichen (Cetraria nivalis)
- squamulose lichen
- stone lichen
- string-of-sausage lichen
- sunburst lichen (Xanthoria, Xanthoparmelia)
- terricolous lichen
- thrush lichen (Peltigera apthosa)
- tropical lichen
- tube lichen
- vagrant lichen
- Wilson's lichen
- wolf lichen
Translations
[edit]symbiotic association of algae and fungi
|
something which spreads across something else, causing damage — see cancer
Verb
[edit]lichen (third-person singular simple present lichens, present participle lichening, simple past and past participle lichened)
- (transitive) To cover with lichen.
- 1903, J. Gordon Mowat, John Alexander Cooper, Newton MacTavish, The Canadian Magazine (volume 21, page 37)
- […] making the rocks assume the mould of age and lichening the trees with damp beauty.
- 1903, J. Gordon Mowat, John Alexander Cooper, Newton MacTavish, The Canadian Magazine (volume 21, page 37)
See also
[edit]
lichen on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - algae
- fungus
- Iceland moss
- moss
- reindeer moss
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “lichen”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 “lichen”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 “lichen”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Latin lichen, from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]lichen m (plural lichens)
Derived terms
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “lichen”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
[edit]Latin
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈliː.kʰeːn/, [ˈlʲiːkʰeːn]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈli.ken/, [ˈliːken]
Noun
[edit]līchēn m (genitive līchēnos or līchēnis); third declension
- (literally) a cryptogamic species of vegetation growing on trees, lichen
- (transferred sense, medicine) an eruption on the skin of men and beasts, a tetter, ringworm
- (and especially) a callous excrescence upon the leg of a horse, used as a medicine
Declension
[edit]Third-declension noun (Greek-type, normal variant or non-Greek-type).
| 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
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- “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)
Luxembourgish
[edit]Verb
[edit]lichen (third-person singular present licht, past participle gelicht, auxiliary verb hunn)
- (transitive, slang) to kick out, to throw out, to sack
Synonyms
[edit]- (transitive) to lift (a little)
- (reflexive, slang) to get up, to leave (as a guest), to get to one's feet
- (reflexive) to lift (fog, mist)
Synonyms
[edit]Romanian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]lichen m (plural licheni)
Declension
[edit]| singular | plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | ||
| nominative-accusative | lichen | lichenul | licheni | lichenii | |
| genitive-dative | lichen | lichenului | licheni | lichenilor | |
| vocative | lichenule | lichenilor | |||
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *leyǵʰ-
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/aɪkən
- Rhymes:English/aɪkən/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/ɪtʃən
- Rhymes:English/ɪtʃən/2 syllables
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English indeclinable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Lichens
- French terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- French terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *leyǵʰ-
- French terms borrowed from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French terms derived from Ancient Greek
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- fr:Lichens
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *leyǵʰ-
- Latin terms borrowed from Ancient Greek
- Latin terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Latin 2-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin lemmas
- Latin nouns
- Latin third declension nouns
- Latin masculine nouns in the third declension
- Latin masculine nouns
- Latin terms with transferred senses
- la:Medicine
- Luxembourgish lemmas
- Luxembourgish verbs
- Luxembourgish verbs using hunn as auxiliary
- Luxembourgish transitive verbs
- Luxembourgish slang
- Luxembourgish reflexive verbs
- Romanian terms borrowed from French
- Romanian terms derived from French
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian nouns
- Romanian countable nouns
- Romanian masculine nouns