Mosslike

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having the soft, green, velvety appearance or feel of moss growing over a surface
2. Looking or feeling like the low, spongy plants that carpet damp rocks, soil and tree trunks
3. Characterized by a fine, downy, cushion-like covering similar to the growth found on shaded stones

Etymology: Moss goes back to Old English "mos", a word for bog or marsh before it came to mean the green plant that grows on damp ground. The "-like" ending is one of English's most productive suffixes, from Old English "-lic", originally meaning "having the form or appearance of" something. Adding it to a noun produces an adjective, so "mosslike" describes anything resembling moss. The base word tells the older story. Early English "mos" named boggy, waterlogged land, and the sense of the plant developed later, as people applied the name to the spongy green growth that thrives in such places. Many English words for plants and textures follow this same pattern of attaching "-like" to a familiar noun, so "mosslike" is a plain, transparent formation rather than a coinage with a notable author or date.

Synonyms: mossy, moss-covered