Cheflike

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having the skill, manner or appearance associated with a professional cook or head of a kitchen
2. Suggesting the expertise and polish of a skilled chef in preparing food
3. Characteristic of a professional cook, especially in a confident and accomplished way

Etymology: "Cheflike" is a plain compound: the noun "chef", borrowed from French, where it meant "head" or "leader" (from Latin "caput", head), combined with the suffix "-like", which attaches the sense "resembling or characteristic of." So the adjective describes someone who works or cooks in the manner of a professional chef. The more interesting angle is that "chef" itself once meant nothing about cooking. In French it simply denoted a head or leader, and only later narrowed to the head of a kitchen, which is the sense English adopted. The word therefore carries its ancestral sense of leadership inside a much narrower culinary meaning. "Cheflike" follows the same pattern as "headlike," which shares its construction and sense relationship with it, making the two near-parallel formations in English.