An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Leichnam

by Friedrich Kluge

Leichnam, masculine, ‘dead body, corpse,’ from Middle High German lîchname, Old High German lîhhinamo, masculine, ‘body, substance, corpse’; Old High German lîhhinamo for *lihhin-hamo is based on a weak form *lîkan-, *lîkin- (compare Gothic manleika, ‘image’); at all events, Old High German lîhhin-amo is not a corruption of Old Teutonic lîkhamo, masculine, ‘body’; Old High German lîhhamo (by syncope lîhmo), Middle High German lîchame, masculine, Anglo-Saxon lîc-hǫma, Old Icelandic líkamr (líkame), masculine, ‘body.’ The second component is an obsolete noun (ham, hamo), meaning ‘form, covering’; compare Old Icelandic hamr, ‘skin, shape,’ Anglo-Saxon homa, ‘covering’; Gothic anahamôn, gahamôn, ‘to put on (clothes), dress’ (compare Hamen, hämisch, and Hemd). Therefore Leichnam probably signified originally ‘body,’ literally ‘covering or form of flesh,’ i.e. ‘body of flesh, in so far as it is endowed with life.’ The compound has a rather poetical air about it, and in fact Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon poetry coined many similar circumlocutions for ‘body.’ In Anglo-Saxon poetry compare flœ̂sc-homa, ‘flesh-covering,’ also bân-fœt, literally ‘bone-vessel,’ bânhûs, literally ‘bone-house,’ bânloca, literally ‘bone-cage,’ bâncofa, literally ‘bone-dwelling,’ as synonyms of Anglo-Saxon lîc-homa, ‘body.’ Hence it is quite possible that Old Teutonic lîk-hamo was adopted from poetry in ordinary prose.