Upir Lichy - possible origin of the word Lich?

[Tonguez]

According to "The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead" - J. Gordon Melton

1047 First appearance of the word "upir" (an early form of the word later to become "vampire") in a document referring to a Russian prince as "Upir Lichy", or wicked vampire.

Anyway Upir Lichy - is this an possible origin of that name?
Anyone know anything else about the Russian Prince being referred to?

 

[johnsemlak]

Where did this word appear, in a Russian document I assume?

My knowlege of Russian history during that period is scetchy, I'd have to read up. Many of the figures of that period are rather mythical, anyway. I certainly don't know offhand of any lich-type princes .

The best place to check this sort of thing, of course, is the Oxford English Dictionary, if you have access to it.

 

[Buttercup]

I don't know anything about Russian, but I do know a bit about Anglo-Saxon (also known as Old English). The word lich comes to us through Middle English from the word lyche, pronounced leech with the throat clearing sound of the German word ach, and meaning corpse or body. Before that, it came from the Anglo-Saxon word lic, which meant the same thing and was pronounced leek or leech.

 

[Dirigible]

I figure Lich became a creature the same way Gangrel and Caitiff becmae clans...

The designer was reading a comprehensive english dictionary and saw a word he liked

 

[ciaran00]

nevermind me

ciaran

 

[lacunae]

Try this:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=lich

 

[jgbrowning]

I don't know anything about Russian, but I do know a bit about Anglo-Saxon (also known as Old English). The word lich comes to us through Middle English from the word lyche, pronounced leech with the throat clearing sound of the German word ach, and meaning corpse or body. Before that, it came from the Anglo-Saxon word lic, which meant the same thing and was pronounced leek or leech.

Yep. It's an old word.

joe b.

 

[HalfElfSorcerer]

According to the OED, lich means a dead body, and its origins are traced back through old English, old German, Saxon, Gothic, and Old Teutonic. You gotta love having a high school that can afford expensive databases. The OED is an incredible resource.

 

[woodelf]

And to add to what others have said about the origins through Middle English, meaning "corpse", an Ars Magica sourcebook credits the term with being a corruption of the Gaelic for "life"--dunno if that's one of the historic bits or one of the fictional bits, however, and the Gaelic dictionaries online aren't helping me much.

 

[tarchon]

And to add to what others have said about the origins through Middle English, meaning "corpse", an Ars Magica sourcebook credits the term with being a corruption of the Gaelic for "life"--dunno if that's one of the historic bits or one of the fictional bits, however, and the Gaelic dictionaries online aren't helping me much.

It sounds pretty fictional. The root certainly goes back to Proto-Germanic, so there isn't any way it could be from Gaelic.