like: English has a diverse group of words spelled like, but they all come ultimately from the same source. This was prehistoric Germanic *līkam ‘appearance, form, body’ (source also of the lych- of English lych-gate [15], which originally signified the gate through which a coffin was carried into a churchyard). From it was derived the verb *līkōjan, which passed into English as like.
It originally meant ‘please’, but by the 12th century had done a semantic somersault to ‘find pleasing’. The same Germanic *likam produced English alike, literally ‘similar in appearance’, whose Old Norse relative líkr was borrowed into English as the adjective like [12]. Its adverbial and prepositional uses developed in the later Middle Ages. Also from Old Norse came the derived adjective likely [13].
English each and such were formed from the ancestor of like. => each, such
like (adj.)
"having the same characteristics or qualities" (as another), Middle English shortening of Old English gelic "like, similar," from Proto-Germanic *galika- "having the same form," literally "with a corresponding body" (cognates: Old Saxon gilik, Dutch gelijk, German gleich, Gothic galeiks "equally, like"), a compound of *ga- "with, together" + Germanic base *lik- "body, form; like, same" (cognates: Old English lic "body," German Leiche "corpse," Danish lig, Swedish lik, Dutch lijk "body, corpse"). Analogous, etymologically, to Latin conform. The modern form (rather than *lich) may be from a northern descendant of the Old English word's Norse cognate, glikr.
Formerly with comparative liker and superlative likest (still in use 17c.). The preposition (c. 1200) and the adverb (c. 1300) both are from the adjective. As a conjunction, first attested early 16c. The word has been used as a postponed filler ("going really fast, like") from 1778; as a presumed emphatic ("going, like, really fast") from 1950, originally in counterculture slang and bop talk. Phrase more like it "closer to what is desired" is from 1888.
like (n.)
c. 1200, "a similar thing" (to another), from like (adj.).
like (v.)
Old English lician "to please, be sufficient," from Proto-Germanic *likjan (cognates: Old Norse lika, Old Frisian likia, Old High German lihhen, Gothic leikan "to please"), from *lik- "body, form; like, same."
The basic meaning seems to be "to be like" (see like (adj.)), thus, "to be suitable." Like (and dislike) originally flowed the other way: It likes me, where we would say I like it. The modern flow began to appear late 14c. (compare please).
双语例句
1. Similes usually start with " like " or " as ".
明喻通常以 like 或as开头.
来自《简明英汉词典》
2. I thought you might like to read the enclosed.
我想你或许想要读一下信封里的内容。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Three hundred million dollars will be nothing like enough.
3亿美元远远不够。
来自柯林斯例句
4. He did not like to be caught out on details.
他不喜欢在细节上被人抓住把柄。
来自柯林斯例句
5. He once told an interviewer that he didn't even like rock music.