Monday word: lickerish
Aug. 12th, 2013 10:53 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
lickerish (l
k
r-
sh), adj.
1. greedy; desirous
2. lecherous; lustful
3. fond of delicious food
4. (obsolete) tempting; choice; dainty.
(For what it's worth, definition 3 is marked as archaic in my 1983 Webster's dictionary, but not in my 1963 World Book dictionary.)
Etymology: around 1500, from Middle English likerous, "pleasing to the palate".
"...And would'st thou seek again to trap me here
With lickerish baits, fit to ensnare a brute?
Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets,
I would not taste thy treasonous offer; none,
But such as are good men, can give good things;
And that which is not good, is not delicious
To a well-govern'd and wise appetite."...
- John Milton, "Comus" (1634)
' "Sawbone & Mr. Quillcock!" cried Pocock upon seeing Henry & me. "Art thou come to rescue our virgin sisters from my scabdragon?" Pocock danced with a marlinespike in a vulgar fashion & the seamen clapped with lickerish laughter. Henry, laughing, retorted that he preferred his virgins without beards. Pocock's riposte on maidens' beards is too obscene to record. '
- David Mitchell, "Cloud Atlas" (2004)




1. greedy; desirous
2. lecherous; lustful
3. fond of delicious food
4. (obsolete) tempting; choice; dainty.
(For what it's worth, definition 3 is marked as archaic in my 1983 Webster's dictionary, but not in my 1963 World Book dictionary.)
Etymology: around 1500, from Middle English likerous, "pleasing to the palate".
"...And would'st thou seek again to trap me here
With lickerish baits, fit to ensnare a brute?
Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets,
I would not taste thy treasonous offer; none,
But such as are good men, can give good things;
And that which is not good, is not delicious
To a well-govern'd and wise appetite."...
- John Milton, "Comus" (1634)
' "Sawbone & Mr. Quillcock!" cried Pocock upon seeing Henry & me. "Art thou come to rescue our virgin sisters from my scabdragon?" Pocock danced with a marlinespike in a vulgar fashion & the seamen clapped with lickerish laughter. Henry, laughing, retorted that he preferred his virgins without beards. Pocock's riposte on maidens' beards is too obscene to record. '
- David Mitchell, "Cloud Atlas" (2004)