Brushlike

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Resembling a tool designed for painting or grooming due to its structural similarities with bristles or fibers
2. Possessing characteristics similar to items that are equipped with structures reminiscent of those found on a typical brush
3. Exhibiting a form or texture that suggests the presence of fine, bristle-like projections similar to those found on a brush

Etymology: "Brushlike" is a plain compound: "brush" with the suffix "-like," which means "resembling" or "having the form of." The suffix goes back to an Old English form, "-līċ," which later became "-like" in Middle English and has been productive ever since, attaching to nouns to produce adjectives such as "catlike" or "shell-like." The first half has a longer story. "Brush" traces back through Old French "broisse," from a Vulgar Latin "brustia," and before that to Frankish "burstin" and Proto-Germanic "burstiz," meaning bristles. Its root is related to words for bristling and bristles, so a brush was named for the stiff hairs or bristles that made it up before it came to name the tool itself. Combining the two gives a word whose literal sense is "having the form of bristles or a brush," which is how it is used to describe anything with dense, stiff, bristle-like parts.

Synonyms: bristly, hairy