Monday word: lickerish

[ersatz-read.livejournal.com]

lickerish (lkr-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)

Comments

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

ooOOoh, what a simple word and yet I've not heard of it and it rolls off the...tongue~

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Huh -- I've met that in the lustful but not hungry senses.

---L.

[med_cat]

Interesting :)