Heathlike

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having the qualities of open heathland, with low shrubby plants such as heather and gorse growing across barren ground
2. Suggesting the wild, open moorland covered in low woody shrubs and sparse grasses typical of uncultivated upland terrain
3. Characteristic of a tract of open, scrubby country dominated by heather and similar low-growing plants

Etymology: "Heathlike" is about as transparent as English compounds get: it joins "heath," an open tract of wild, low-growing shrubland and moor, with the suffix "-like," meaning "resembling" or "having the character of." Put together, it describes something that has the look or feel of such open country, a landscape of scrubby, windswept ground stretching away without trees. The "heath" half is the older and more interesting part. It comes from Old English "hǣþ," which referred to uncultivated open land, and it is related to words in other Germanic languages for the same kind of barren, unenclosed ground. "-Like" is an equally old English formation, from the word meaning "body" or "form," which is why the suffix has long been attached to nouns to mean "resembling" them. Pairing the two gives a plain, descriptive adjective with no surprises beyond its ancestry.

Synonyms: heathery, heathy