Unliken

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To make something different or dissimilar in character or appearance from what it was before
2. To cause things to lose their similarity or to become more distinctly different from one another
3. To alter or transform so as to become unlike in quality, nature, or resemblance

Etymology: "Unliken" is a plain formation: the prefix "un-" attached to "liken," meaning to make like or compare to. The verb "liken" goes back to the Old English "gelīcian," built from "gelīc," "like" or "similar," so "unliken" simply reverses that sense. It came into English through Middle English "unliknen," where the same pattern of negating a verb with "un-" was already productive. The word is a rare, transparent example of how English speakers could form new verbs by adding "un-" to an existing one, reversing its action rather than its quality. Its meaning follows directly from its parts: to remove or undo a likeness, or to stop comparing things as similar.