lúc

Lîc is an archaic or dialectal spelling of the Old English noun līc, meaning body or corpse. In Old English, and in related North Germanic languages such as Old Norse, forms like līk or lík referred to a person’s body or the corpse; the word also appears in Middle English in various spellings (lic, lyc). The term is cognate with Dutch lijk, German Leiche, and Icelandic lík, all meaning body or corpse.

In English-language scholarship, lîc is mainly encountered in philological or historical discussions, where the diacritic marks the vowel length in older spellings. It is not common in modern standard spelling, and the sense largely disappeared from everyday usage, surviving only in some dialect texts and in discussions of Old English vocabulary.

In modern popular culture, the related word lich (without diacritics) is used to denote an undead spellcaster who prolongs life through a phylactery. This fantasy sense is derived from the same historical root but represents a distinct concept from the original corpse meaning and is not a standard English usage outside fictional contexts.