Childlike

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈt͡ʃaɪldlaɪk/

Definitions

1. Possessing or displaying the innocent, simple, and trusting qualities characteristic of a young person rather than an adult
2. having the innocent, simple, and trusting nature typical of young children rather than mature adults
3. displaying the guileless wonder, directness, and lack of cynicism commonly found in youth rather than adulthood

Etymology: "Childlike" is about as transparent as English compounds get: "child" plus the suffix "-like," meaning "resembling." The suffix has a longer pedigree than the word it is attached to, though. It traces back through Proto-Germanic ""līkaz," meaning "body" or "form," and Old English "-līc," which came to mean "having the form or appearance of." English then reshaped that ending into "-like" in the Middle English period, giving English speakers a flexible tool they still use to build new adjectives such as "ladylike" and "godlike." The base word "child" has a deeper history of its own, reaching back to a Proto-Indo-European root ""ǵeyǵ-"? Stop there: that root is reconstructed and not needed to explain the word. What matters is that "childlike" simply describes something that resembles a child, and its meaning has stayed close to that literal sense while picking up the positive, unguarded quality that people attach to young children.

Synonyms: innocent, naive, simple

Antonyms: adult, sophisticated