lic

See also: LIC, Lic, líc, lić, lîç, Lic., lic., and -lic

English

Alternative forms

lic.

Noun

lic (plural lics)

Abbreviation of license/licence.

Anagrams

CIL, CLI, LCI

Irish

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /l̠ʲɪc/

Noun

lic f

(archaic, dialectal) Alternative form of leic: dative singular of leac

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /lit͡s/, [lʲit͡s]

Verb

lic

second-person singular imperative of licyś

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *līk, from Proto-Germanic *līką.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /liːt͡ʃ/

Noun

līċ n

dead body, corpse
Ōga cwæþ þæt hē wisse hwǣr þæt līċ bebyrġed wǣre.
Oga said he knew where the body was buried.
(rare outside of poetry) body (living or dead)
- late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of Saint Augustine's Soliloquies
  Hū, ne sæġde iċ ǣr þæt sē þe bær līċ ġefrēdan wolde, þæt hē hit sċolde mid barum handum ġefrēdan?
  Didn't I say before that if you want to feel someone's bare body, you have to feel it with your bare hands?
form

Usage notes

Līką was the general word for "body" in Proto-Germanic (as still in Gothic), but by the time of written Old English, līċ has come to mean a dead body specifically, and the general word for "body" is līchama.
The older sense “body (living or dead)” is preserved mainly in poetry and in certain compounds such as līcþēote (“pore,” literally “body pipe”). Some other compounds even preserve the yet older sense “form,” otherwise totally obsolete: eoforlīċ (“bore figure,” e.g. a boar crest on a helmet). See also the derived terms -līċ → Modern English -ly and ġelīċ → like, which both originally meant “formed” or “shaped” at some point in Proto-Germanic.

Declension

Declension of lic (strong a-stem)

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	līċ	līc
accusative	līċ	līc
genitive	līċes	līca
dative	līċe	līcum

Synonyms

hrǣw

Derived terms

ġelīċ (“like, similar”)
-līċ (adjective-forming suffix: “-y, -ly, -like”)
līchama (“body”)
līcian (“to please,” impersonal: “to like”)
līctūn (“cemetery”)
līcþeġnung (“funeral”)
līcþēote (“pore”)

Descendants

Middle English: lich, lik
- English: lich
- Scots: lyke, lich

Polish

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /lit͡s/
Rhymes: -it͡s
Syllabification: lic

Noun

lic

genitive plural of lico

Scottish Gaelic

Noun

lic f

dative of leac

Slovene

Noun

lic

genitive dual/plural of lice