suffix, forming adjs. and advs. In strictness, the words containing this suffix are compounds of LIKE a. and adv., in the senses in which these words govern a dative or are followed by an adj. (see LIKE a. 1 b, LIKE adv. 1, 3). The compounds so formed not unfrequently resemble in sense the derivatives formed with -lik(e, ME. dial. form of -LY1, -LY2, but the two formations are entirely distinct: thus ME. gredilike adv. (= greedily) is not the same word as the mod. Sc. greedy-like.
1. Appended to sbs. a. Forming adjs. with the general sense ‘similar to —,’ ‘characteristic of, befitting —.’ Early examples are circlelyk (a. 1420), chieftainlike (c. 1470 Henry, Wallace, VI. 489), devil-like (c. 1470), godlike (1513), bishoplike (1544), flesh-like (1552). The suffix may now be appended to almost all sbs., including proper names; in formations intended as nonce-words, or not generally current, the hyphen is ordinarily used.
Some particular writers have shown an extraordinary fondness for words of this formation; e.g., more than 60 occur in Bailey’s Festus.
1598. Dallington, Meth. Trav., S iij b. Making Hidalgo-like Rhodomontades.
1603. Dekker, Grissil (Shaks. Soc.), 5. Then can you blame me to be hunter like, When I must get a wife?
1607. R. C[arew], trans. Estienne’s World of Wonders, 188. The testimonies which themselues giue of their Sardanaple-like sobriety.
1784. R. Bage, Barham Downs, I. 100. An unaccountable unquality-like fit of the spleen.
1823. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls., 151. The professor thought this conduct extremely rude and ungoldsmithlike.
1825. Greenhouse Comp., II. 38. Their leaves and habits are so salad- and kitchen-garden-like, that we cannot recommend them. Ibid., II. 84. A low shrub, with heath- or fir-like leaves.
1834. Tait’s Mag., I. 758/1. He gave an Egan-like description of a pugilistic encounter.
1839. Bailey, Festus (1852), 286. And swore to make all souls Believe alike in clockworklike content.
1849. Noad, Electricity, 189. That plumbago-like substance found lining the interior of long-used coal-gas retorts.
1857. E. FitzGerald, Lett. (1889), I. 263. June over! A thing I think of with Omar-like sorrow.
1866. W. Aitken, Sci. & Pract. Med., II. 578. If the noise … is that of a friction-murmur, soft and bellows-like.
1901. Academy, 13 July, 29/2. Strong, cudgel-like Anglo-Saxon words.
b. Forming advs. with the sense ‘in or after the manner of —’, ‘so as to resemble —.’ Early instances are fellowlike (c. 1530), gentlemanlike (1542), phraselike (1549), bishoplike (1555). These advs., and the method of formation, are now perh. to be regarded as obsolete or at least archaistic, the apparent examples in recent use being explicable as quasi-advb. uses of the adj.; at least, the advs. or quasi-advs. are now employed only to characterize the subject of the sentence, not, as formerly, to indicate the manner of an action. In accordance with this change of signification, -like in the quasi-adverbial use now takes optionally a second principal stress, and is nearly always hyphened.
1564–78. Bullein, Dial. agst. Pest. (1888), 80. This is a comely parlour, very netly and trimely apparrelled, London like.
1576. Gascoigne, Philomene (Arb.), 104. She … drest hir Bacchus like.
1624. D. Cawdrey, Humilitie Saints Liverie, 39. How vainely and garishly (popingaye-like) are our men and women attired? without grauitie, modestie, chastitie; almost to confusion of sexes.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. xii. (1840), 255. How … coward-like they had behaved.
[1768. [W. Donaldson], Life & Adv. Sir B. Sapskull, I. 71. His father … (dotard like) seem’d fully satisfy’d.
1834. Tait’s Mag., I. 768/2. Mr. Justice Rivers, Brutus-like, was constrained in justice to condemn.
1871. Browning, Prince Hohenst., 97. Only continue patient while I throw Delver-like, spadeful after spadeful up.]
2. Appended to adjs. a. Forming adjs. In Sc. the suffix is added freely to almost any descriptive adj., esp. those relating to mental qualities, conditions of temper, or the like; the general sense of the compounds is ‘having the appearance of being —.’ In Eng. use the formation is not common, and the sense is usually ‘resembling, or characteristic of, one who is —,’ as in genteel-like, human-like.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VI. 694. Schir Rawff Gray saw at thai war Sotheron leik. Ibid., X. 210. ‘Allace,’ he said, ‘the warld is contrar lik!’
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1355/1. Of countenance amiable, and complexion English like.
1621. Lady M. Wroth, Urania, 182. I was not sillines he saw, that made that innocent-like fashion shew in me.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., VI. 264. Wee found twelue Venerable like Turkes, ready to receiue vs.
1639. [see ALIVE-LIKE].
1724. Ramsay, Vision, iv. A man … Richt auld lyke, and bauld lyke.
1789. A. Wilson, Lett., in Poems & Lit. Prose (1876), I. 48. John’s grim-like smile.
1825. Ld. Cockburn, Mem., ii. 110. It was a low square-like room.
1825. Greenhouse Comp., II. 15. A low herbaceous-like shrub.
1827. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 357. I think Peter’s looking auld-like.
1839. Bailey, Festus (1852), 389. Their sublime-like beauty.
1866. Aitken, Sci. & Pract. Med., II. 719. A gluey-like material.
b. Forming advs. With the sense ‘like one who is —.’ Obs. exc. in Sc., where the sense of the advs. is rather ‘so as to appear —.’
Chiefly in contexts where the word might admit of being taken as adj.; cf. 1 b.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, V. 577. All his four men bar thaim quietlik.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke, 154 b. With suche pompe as this, triumphaunt lyke, and with such a trayne about him, did the Lord Iesus goe vnto Hierusalem.
1594. Warres Cyrus, 1646. The Goddesse turnde her face, offending-like, frowning with angrie brows.
1681. Rycaut, Critick, 182. You, Phrygian, or inconsiderate like, replied Critilo, propound late Remedies.
1682. Songs & Ball. (Percy Soc.), 126. When thundering like we strike about.
Mod. Sc. Dinna rug at it sae rochlike [= roughly], or ye’ll brak it.
