# ich

Pronunciation: say "IK" /ɪk/

## Noun

1. A common disease of freshwater fish that leaves small white spots on the skin and gills, or the single-celled parasite, Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, that causes it.
   - Simple: A disease of freshwater fish that leaves small white spots on the skin, or the tiny parasite that causes it.
   - _Crowded, stressed fish are especially vulnerable to ich during sudden temperature swings._
   - _An outbreak of ich swept through the hatchery's holding tanks within days._

## Pronoun

Pronunciation: say "EECH" /iːt͡ʃ/

2. An obsolete first-person singular pronoun, equivalent to the modern "I." *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A very old word for "I" that people no longer use.

## Origin

**Meaning 2** — Proto-Indo-European *eǵh₂óm ("I") passed through Proto-Germanic *ik or *ek and Proto-West Germanic *ik into Old English as iċ or iċċ, meaning "I," and survived in Middle English as ich.
**Meaning 1** — A clipping of ichthyophthiriasis.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ich (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).