different between linch vs lich

English

Alternative forms

• lynch

Etymology

From Template:linh, link, from Old English hlinc (“a hill”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?n?/
• Rhymes: -?n?

Noun

linch (plural linches)

1. A ledge, a terrace; a right-angled projection; a lynchet.
   • 1910, An introduction to the study of local history and antiquities, page 387:

     Within ten years linches were formed; rain washed down the mould, some accident arrested it at a certain line, and a terrace was the result. Certainly the tendency is for the upper part of such a field to be denuded of mould, to be worked "to the bone," i.e. to the bare chalk or stone. But the first makers of linches had no choice. They had to farm on slopes or not at all, […]

   • 2013, Peter James, Nick Thorpe, Ancient Mysteries ?ISBN, page 289:

     Indeed, a map of 1844 marks some of the lower terraces on the southern and eastern flanks of the hill as "Tor Linches," a linch or lynchet being a terrace of land wide enough to plot. (Some linches were deliberately Fashioned; others came about as the land flattened into platforms through being worked.)

2. (rare, regional or obsolete) An acclivity; a small hill or hillock.
   • 15th century, anonymous, Mum and the Sothsegger (15th c.)

     I lay down on a linch to lithe my bones.

Derived terms

• linchy

Related terms

• lynchet

References

• linch in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “link, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• Wright, Joseph (1902) The English Dialect Dictionary?^[1], volume 3, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 610

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English lich, from Old English l??, from Proto-West Germanic *l?k, from Proto-Germanic *l?k?, from Proto-Indo-European *leyg-.

Cognate with Dutch lijk, German Leiche, Norwegian lik, Swedish lik, Danish lig.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /l?t?/
  • (West Country, possibly obsolete) IPA^(key): /lit?/
• Rhymes: -?t?

Noun

lich (plural liches)

1. (archaic) A corpse or dead body. [from 9th c.]
   • 1845, Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, page 35:

     […] and that, as the chronicle states, a lich-way would be made through then, assembled his servants, and attempted to stop its progress as it was carried over a bridge. A scuffle ensued, and the body was thrown into the water. The lich-way as not made ; but the Bishop of Exeter amply revenged himself for the proceedings.
2. (fantasy, roleplay) A reanimated corpse or undead being, particularly a still-intelligent undead spellcaster.
   • 1974, Karl Edward Wagner, ‘Sticks’:

     It was a lich’s face – desiccated flesh tight over its skull.

Derived terms

• lichgate
• lych-gate

Translations

References

Etymology 2

From Middle English l?ke, l?ch (“like”); see like and -like for more. Compare -ly.

Adjective

lich (comparative more lich, superlative most lich)

1. (obsolete) Like; resembling; equal.
   • 1386-90, John Gower, Confessio Amantis.

     Anon he let two cofres make / Of one semblance, and of one make, / So lich, that no lif thilke throwe, / That one may fro that other knowe.

   • [He] rather joy'd to be than seemen sich, For both to be and seeme to him was labour lich.

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English l??, from Proto-West Germanic *l?k, from Proto-Germanic *l?k?, from Proto-Indo-European *leyg-.

Noun

lich (plural lichs)

1. A body.
   • 1362, William Langland, Piers Plowman, XI.2:

     A wyf […] Þat lene was of lich and of louh chere.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?ix/

Noun

lich f

1. genitive plural of licha

Noun

lich n

1. genitive plural of licho

Further reading

• lich in Polish dictionaries at PWN