Monday, January 10, 2011

Lickerish

Lickerish \LIK-er-ish\ , adjective;
1. Fond of and eager for choice food
2. Greedy; longing
3. Lustful; lecherous

This word, with the definition "fond of delicious fare," dates to the 1500's and comes from Middle English lickerous ("pleasing to the palate" - late 13th century). Lickerous derives from Anglo-French *lickerous which comes from Old French licherous. Modern English lecherous ("having or showing excessive or offensive sexual desire") also comes from licherous, but at some point its definition took a turn for the tawdry.

Today's word and the first definition were both taken from Dictionary.com's 'Word of the Day' for Monday, January 10
Etymologies come from the Oxford English Dictionary and/or Etymonline.com

2 comments:

  1. Hi. This is my first visit. Your blog is awesome. I am learning a thing or two from it. THANKS.
    I will keep visiting this online page of yours.

    Keep up the good work.

    Zahra

    http://my-english-book.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for the kind words!

    ReplyDelete