Liches

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A creature often depicted in fantasy literature as an undead being capable of powerful magic and seeking to prolong its life through dark rituals
2. A being typically portrayed as a corpse reanimated by necromancy, possessing intelligence and formidable magical abilities
3. An undead character commonly found in role-playing games and mythology, known for its mastery of sorcery and desire for eternal existence

Etymology: "Liches" is the plural of "lich", and the singular has an older life than its fantasy meaning suggests. In Old English, "līċ" meant simply "body", the physical form of a person, and it survives today in the compound "corpse" only as a faint echo. The same root gave Old English "līċ" its sense of a dead body, which is why the word still points to bodies and remains at the heart of the modern figure. The fantasy sense is a modern revival of that old meaning. Scholars and writers reached back to the word for a corpse and attached it to a sorcerer who had become undead, so the image of a magic-wielding skeleton grew out of the plain Old English word for a body. The plural follows the regular English pattern, adding "-es" to a noun ending in a sibilant-like sound.

Synonyms: lichens