liken

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English liknen,^[2][3] formed from Middle English lik (“like, similar”) + -nen,^[3] that is, the adjective like with the verb-forming suffix -en.^{[4][5][6][7][2]} The Middle English Dictionary and Wiktionary instead take it as formed on a Middle English verb līken.^[8][1] The adjective goes back to Old English gelīc (“like, similar”), a shortening of which gave Middle English lik about 1200,^[5] from Proto-Germanic *līkaz (“similar”).^[9] The OED compares Middle Dutch likenen (“to resemble”), Dutch lijkenen, Middle Low German līkenen (“to resemble, to compare”), Old Swedish likna, Swedish likna, Danish ligne, Old Frisian alīknia (“to compare”) and Old High German gilīhhinōn (“to compete”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To regard or represent as similar; to compare: before 1325, in the Southern Passion, for which the OED also gives the date of about 1280.^[4] Barnhart's 1280 and Etymonline's late 13th century match that earlier date.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The verb has been transitive from the start, and the sense "to compare" has never lapsed.^[4] Middle English also used it intransitively for "to resemble, to become like", recorded from 1340 and obsolete in the standard language by the 19th or early 20th century,^[4][6] though Merriam-Webster Unabridged still lists it.^[3] From before 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible, it could mean "to make like", now uncommon.^[4][6] A use for associating a person with another by repute, especially in an illicit relationship or as a future spouse, runs from about 1570 to 1875, surviving longest in Scots.^[4][6] Johnson (1755) knew only "to represent as having resemblance; to compare", and quoted Henry IV: "for likening him to a singing man of Windsor".^[10] In Scots and northern English dialect it meant "to compare, to match", and in Scotland and Ulster it also meant "to be likely to, to be on the point of": "her heart I trow was liken to break".^[11]

Timeline

• before 1325 – to regard or represent as similar; to compare.^[4]
• 1340 – intransitive, to resemble, to become like (obsolete).^[4]
• before 1382 – to make like.^[4]
• c. 1400 – to make derogatory analogies about a person (obsolete, rare).^[4]
• c. 1450 – to symbolize, to represent.^[4]
• 1515 – with an infinitive, to represent as being or doing something (obsolete by 1681).^[4]
• c. 1570 – to associate a person with another by repute (obsolete by 1875).^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To describe or regard one thing as similar to another; to compare: The coach likened the season to a long climb.^[3][4][6]
2. To make like something else; to cause to resemble it.^[4][6]
3. (obsolete, 1340–1922) Intransitive, to resemble or become like.^[4][6]
4. (obsolete) To associate a person with another by repute, especially as a lover or future spouse.^[4][6]

Word family

• likening

Related words

• like
• alike
• likeness
• lichen

Usage notes

Dictionary.com lists liken among the words confused with lichen.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
9. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House