> Jan van Steenbergen scripsit:
>
> > It looks a bit strange indeed, but not impossible. The word "lichaam"
> > (Middle Dutch "lichâme", Ohd. lîhhamo) consists of two roots: "lîka-"
> > (Modern Dutch "lijk" = dead body), and "xaman-" (Mod. Dutch "haam" =
> > net), and is of course cognate to German "leichnam".
>
> Old English has the word too, in the form "lichama". Here's a
> picture of "se lichama" with major parts labeled in good OE:
>
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/hwaet/lichama.gif . By early
> ME times the word was replaced by _body_ < OE _bodig_.
>
> _Lich_ 'corpse' left more traces in English before the word went extinct:
> the "lich-gate" is the gate in a churchyard by which coffins are brought
> in for burial (without going through the church), and a "lyke-wake" is
> another term for "wake" in the sense of a celebratory watch kept over
> a dead boy.
>