lich-owln.
/ˈlɪtʃaʊl/, U.S. /ˈlɪtʃˌaʊl/ The screech-owl, so called because its cry was supposed to portend death in the house.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > order Strigiformes or owl > [noun] > family Tytonidae > tyto alba (barn owl)
shritch?a1500
scritch owl1510
shritch-owl1538
strich1552
screech owl1567
shriek-owl1567
madge?1576
lich-owl1585
lich-fowl1611
jill-hooter1668
white owl1672
barn owl1674
church owl1678
aluco1753
padge1848
cherubim1864
squinch-owl1880
monkey-facec1940
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > foresight, foreknowledge > prediction, foretelling > an omen, sign, portent > [noun] > of evil > screech-owl, portending death
lich-owl1585
lich-fowl1611
1585 J. Higgins tr. Junius Nomenclator 56 Bubo, a shrichowle: a likeowle.
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 283 The Otis is a bird lesse than the Like-Owle,..hauing two plumed ears standing vp aloft.
1604 M. Drayton Owle sig. C2v The shreeking Litch-Owle that doth neuer crye, But boding death.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory ii. 268/1 The little Horn-Owle..termed Lich Owls..because Prognosticaters of Peoples death, when they scrietch about there Houses.
1898 T. Watts-Dunton Aylwin (1900) 32/2 Then came the shadow of a lich-owl, as it whisked past us towards the apple-trees.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1902; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1585