Cavelike

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Resembling or having the characteristics of a large underground chamber, particularly in being dark, hollow, and enclosed within surrounding rock or stone
2. Having qualities reminiscent of a cavern, especially in terms of being spacious, shadowy, and enclosed by solid material
3. Characterized by attributes similar to those found in caves, particularly being dark, enclosed, and having a hollow ambiance

Etymology: Cavelike is a plain compound: the noun "cave" with the suffix "-like", meaning "resembling." The suffix has a longer ancestry than the noun it attaches to. It descends from a Proto-Germanic form meaning "body" or "form," which hardened into the Old English "-līc," the source of the modern "-ly" in words like "lovely" and "friendly." The "-like" spelling that now stands alone developed in Middle English, and it is this form that has been freely attached to nouns ever since. The noun "cave" has a separate and older route. It came into Middle English from Old French, which took it from Latin "cava," a word meaning "hollow" that was the feminine form of "cavus." That Latin root goes back to a prehistoric word for "hollow," traceable to the same ancestor as the English "hole" family, so "cave" and "hole" are distant relatives. Because the suffix is productive, "cavelike" follows the same pattern as "childlike" or "lifelike," and its meaning comes straight from its two parts: a thing shaped like or sharing the qualities of a cave.

Synonyms: grotto-like, cavernous, hollow

Antonyms: open, bright, exposed