lichen · noun — any of many symbiotic organisms, being associations of algae and fungi, often found as white or yellow-to-blue–green patches on rocks, old walls, etc. It carries an Arena rating of 1772, earned across 117 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, lichen ranks #213 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,258 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #2,271 of 17,128 for Most Vivid Words, #2,297 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
lichen is pronounced /ˈlaɪ.kən/.
Why “lichen” is a great word
LICHEN — [Noun] A composite organism arising from a stable, symbiotic partnership between a fungus and a photosynthetic partner, typically an alga or cyanobacterium, forming crustose, foliose, or fruticose growths on inert surfaces. From Latin līchēn, from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn), from λείχω (leíkhō, "to lick"). The modern biological sense is first recorded in 1715. Unlike moss, a distinct, non-vascular plant, or mold, a transient, decomposing fungus, a lichen is a patient and inseparable collaboration. It is the grey-green crust slowly claiming a gravestone, the flaking orange medallion fixed to a granite wall, and the pale, bearded tatters hanging in the high mountain air—a quiet testament that life, even in the barest places, finds resilience not in singularity, but in a delicate and persistent alliance.
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Etymology
Borrowed from Latin līchēn, from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn), from λείχω (leíkhō, “to lick”). Originally used of liverwort; the modern sense first recorded 1715.
noun
- Any of many symbiotic organisms, being associations of algae and fungi, often found as white or yellow-to-blue–green patches on rocks, old walls, etc.e.g.“The Beaches of Lukannon–the winter wheat so tall, / The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog drenching all!” — 1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Lukannon”, in The Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC, page 122:
- Something which gradually spreads across something else, causing damage.e.g.“Meanwhile, abiding a day of judgment, she fought ceaselessly to deny the bitter drops in her cup, to tear back the slow, the intangibly slow growth of a hot, corrosive lichen eating into her heart.” — 1912 January, Zane Grey, “Shadows on the Sage-slope”, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 202:
verb
- To cover with lichen.e.g.“[…] making the rocks assume the mould of age and lichening the trees with damp beauty.” — 1903, J. Gordon Mowat, John Alexander Cooper, Newton MacTavish, The Canadian Magazine, volume 21, page 37:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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