alike

English

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /əˈlaɪk/
• Rhymes: -aɪk

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

alike (comparative more alike, superlative most alike)

1. Having resemblance or similitude; similar; without difference.

   The twins were alike.

   • 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 7:

     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.

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

alike (comparative more alike, superlative most alike)

1. In the same manner, form, or degree; in common; equally.

   We are all alike concerned in religion.

   • 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in The Abbot. , volume I, Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, ; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, , →OCLC, page 73:

     As the Knight himself seemed tacitly to disclaim alike interest and controul over the immediate favourite of his lady, young Roland was, by circumstances, exempted from the strict discipline to which, as the retainer of a Scottish man of rank, he would otherwise have been subjected, according to all the rigour of the age.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

Derived terms

• share and share alike

Translations

Anagrams

• Kalie, alkie

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English ylike, from Old English ġelīc, from Proto-West Germanic *galīk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈliːk/

Adverb

alike

1. alike
   • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 114, lines 7-9:

     and whilke we canna zei, albeit o' 'Governere,' 'Statesman,' an alike.

     and for which we have no words but of 'Governor,' 'Statesman,' &c.

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 114