alike
adjEtymology
The adjective comes from a conflation of several different terms: * Middle English alich, alych, alyke, a Late Middle English development from earlier Middle English anlich, anlyke, from Old English onlīċ, anlīċ. Compare German ähnlich. * The borrowed Old Norse cognate of the same word, álíkr, ultimately yielding similar Late Middle English forms. * Middle English ylich, ylych, ilich, ylik, ylike, ȝelic, from Old English ġelīċ (“like; alike; similar; equal”), from Proto-West Germanic *galīk, from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz (“alike, similar”). Cognate with Scots elyke, alyke (“like, alike”), Saterland Frisian gliek (“like, alike”), West Frisian lyk, gelyk (“like, alike”), Dutch gelijk (“like, alike”), German Low German liek, gliek (“like, alike”), German gleich (“equal, like”), Danish lig (“alike”), Swedish lik (“like, similar”), Norwegian lik (“like, alike”), Icelandic líkur (“alike, like, similar”). Equivalent to a- (Etymology 3) + like. Compare also West Frisian allyk (“all the same, alike”). Similarly, the adverb also comes from a conflation of several different terms: * Middle English aliche, alyche, alyke, a Late Middle English development from earlier Middle English anliche, anlyke, from Old English onlīċe, anlīċe. * Additionally Middle English oliche, olike, ultimately from the Old Norse cognate of the same word, álíka. * Middle English yliche, ylyche, iliche, ylike, ȝelice, from Old English ġelīċe (“alike, similarly”).
Definitions
Having resemblance or similitude
Having resemblance or similitude; similar; without difference.
- Twins are physically alike, that is, similar-looking people on the outside.
- The wide prospect up stream was grey and lowering, the long still-distant waterfront of Dundee, and the Fife shore were alike colourless, and there was ample evidence of rough weather not far ahead.
In the same manner, form, or degree
In the same manner, form, or degree; in common; equally.
- We are all alike concerned in religion.
- Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations.
A village in Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, India.
The neighborhood
- antonymunlike
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for alike. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA