Etymology

-like

Today it means: Resembling, having some of the characteristics of (used to form adjectives from nouns). Full definition →

Proto-Germanic *līką ← Proto-Indo-European *leyg-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
  2. Proto-Germanic*līką
  3. English today-like

From Middle English -like, -lik, from Middle English like, lik (“same, similar, alike”), from Old English ġelīc and Old Norse líkr (“same, similar, alike”). Reinforced by like (preposition). Doublet of -ly. Compare also Dutch -lijk (“-ly, -like”).

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishlike all →

like

Old Norselíkr all →

like

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.