Lick

[Dr. Goodword]

• lick •

Pronunciation: lik • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. An act of licking. 2. A blow as from a beating, as 'a lick on the chin'. 3. (Slang) A bit, small amount (usually negative and with abstract nouns), as 'couldn't do a lick of work'. 4. (Jazz slang) A few bars of improvised music fitted into a solo riff in a jazz piece. 5. (Slang) To defeat, as 'We licked 'em good.'

Notes: Sometimes the most interesting words are the short common ones. Lick is one of them. This word is obviously a count noun based on the verb to lick. The sense derived from the flicking motion of the tongues of animals as they lap water, because quickness is implied in all the senses above.

In Play: A lick may be a quick blow or slap: "When her husband came home late and drunk, she gave him a good lick up beside the head." It may also be a short riff or run of improvised music: "Rusty Horne had some great licks last night on the trumpet." It can also mean a tad or small amount: "Sheila came in so sick tonight, she could hardly dance a lick."

Word History: In Old English today's Good Word was liccian "to lap, lick up" from Proto-Germanic likkon, source also of Dutch likken and German lecken. Proto-Germanic inherited this word from the PIE word leigh- "to lick", adding only a suffixal -k. Leigh- came up in Greek as leichen "tree-moss, lichen", originally "what eats around itself" from leichein "to lick". Anyway, English grabbed the Greek word as lichen. English lecher was borrowed from Old French lecheor based on lechier "to lick, to live in debauchery". I trust your imagination can take you the rest of the way. Oh, by the way, the French verb was of Germanic origin. (Now, for a bit of gratitude to Mike Nichols, who did a lick of work in coming up with today's slangy Good Word and sharing it with us.)

[Slava]

I don't get the idea of "eating around itself" and lichen. Anyone have a clue?

[bnjtokyo]

The prototypical lichen is a round blob growing on a flat rock. It's diameter (and area) gradually increases over the years, slowly expanding over the surface of the rock. In crustose lichens, the area on the margin is where most of the growth occurs (Wikipedia) which gives the impression of slowly oozing, spreading outward.

[Slava]

AHA, it's "eating" the surface area around itself as it spreads. Thank you. I was stuck on actually consuming what it was on.

[damoge]

"Biological weathering is the actual molecular breakdown of minerals. There are things called lichens (combinations of fungi and algae) which live on rocks. Lichens slowly eat away at the surface of rocks. The amount of biological activity that breaks down minerals depends on how much life is in that area."
Does that help?

[Slava]

So it really IS eating the thing it's on? I always thought it was just growing on the surface, at least of rocks. Then again, humans require certain minerals to survive, so why not lichen? Learn something new every day, eh?

[David Myer]

And isn't a 'lick' also a curl of hair? Very fashionable as I recall in the 50s amongst Teddy Boys. The one on the right appears to have two licks - one going each way.

[Slava]

I think this lick is a shortening of "cow lick". Wasn't the curl of hair thought to resemble the tongue of a cow?

[David Myer]

Ahh, I think you might be right, Slava. Well done.