Oceanlike

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. bearing a likeness to the immense and deep waters characteristic of seas having similarities to the vastness typically associated with oceans evoking imagery and features reminiscent of large marine expanses
2. Having qualities that suggest the vastness and depth typical of large ocean waters
3. Displaying traits that evoke the immensity and boundless nature associated with the sea

Etymology: The sea that gave this word its first half was once imagined as a river encircling the whole world. The Greeks called it "Ōkeanos," a god-river that the poets pictured flowing around the edge of the earth, and Latin took over the name as "Ōceanus." The word reached English through Old French "occean" and entered Middle English in forms such as "occean" and "occian," so the sense of an immense body of water was already present long before anyone spoke of its boundlessness. The second half, "-like," is one of the most productive suffixes in English. It descends from Old English "-līċ," a word whose root meant "body" or "form," so that "-like" originally meant "having the form or appearance of." Attaching it to "ocean" produces a compound that describes whatever has the vastness, depth, or endlessness of the sea, whether a landscape, a feeling, or a mind.

Synonyms: oceanic, marine, aquatic, seas-like, watery

Antonyms: landlike, terrestrial, dry, non-aquatic, arid