alike

Etymology

From Middle English alike, alyke, alyche, aleche, and earlier ilike, ilik, ylike, yliche, ylich, elik, ȝelic, from Old English ġelīċ (“like; alike; similar; equal”) and Old English onlīċ, anlīċ ("like; similar; equal"; > Middle English anlike, onlich (compare German ähnlich), reinforced by Old Norse álíkr, 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”).

adj

  1. Having resemblance or similitude; similar; without difference.
    The twins were alike.
    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. 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 7

adv

  1. In the same manner, form, or degree; in common; equally.
    We are all alike concerned in religion.

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