Meanings
alternative dialectal leccam
- UKdialectalno pluralobsoleterareThe human body, especially when living.
For no lickerish living their licham to please.
1987, Romano Carlo Cerrone, Piero Pignata, England & Co, page 512 more examples
[…] 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.
1973, Frank Kermode, John Hollander, The Oxford Anthology of English Literature, volume 1, page 358[…] Me shames with my licham, For I am naked as methink.
2018, Christina M. Fitzgerald, John T. Sebastian, The York Corpus Christi Play
Origin
- Proto-Germanic*līkahamô
- Proto-West Germanic*līkahamō
- Old Englishlīċhama“body”
- Middle Englishlicham
- Englishlicham
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”).
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
licham. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/licham
“licham.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/licham. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “licham,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/licham.
Source: licham on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.