lichenとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Borrowed from Latin līchēn (“ringworm”), from Ancient Greek λειχήν (leikhḗn).

発音

• enPR: lī'kən, IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪ.kən/^[1][2][3]
• (also, especially in the 英国発音) IPA^(key): /ˈlɪ.tʃən/^[1][2][3]
• 韻: -aɪkən, -ɪtʃən
• Homophone: liken

名詞

lichen (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 lichens または lichen)

1. Any of many symbiotic organisms, being associations of algae and fungi, often found as white or yellow patches on old walls, etc.
   • 1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Lukannon”, in The Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, OCLC 752934375, page 122:

     The Beaches of Lukannon–the winter wheat so tall, / The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog drenching all!

   • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, ch XI

     It was the same rich green that one sees on forest moss or on the lichen in caves: plants which like these grow in a perpetual twilight.

   • 1915, John Muir, Travels in Alaska, ch V

     The nibble marks of the stone adze were still visible, though crusted over with scale lichens in most places.

2. (figurative) Something which gradually spreads across something else, causing damage.

   Synonym: cancer

   • 1912 January, Zane Grey, “Shadows on the Sage-slope”, in Riders of the Purple Sage: A Novel, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, OCLC 6868219, page 202:

     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.

下位語

• (symbiotic organism): macrolichen, microlichen

派生語

参考

• lichen on Wikipedia.
• algae
• fungus
• Iceland moss
• moss
• reindeer moss

参照