Origin and history of warlike

"having the same characteristics or qualities" (as another), c. 1200, lik, shortening of y-lik, from Old English gelic "like, similar," from Proto-Germanic *(ga)leika- "having the same form," literally "with a corresponding body" (source also of Old Saxon gilik, Dutch gelijk, German gleich, Gothic galeiks "equally, like").

This is a compound of *ga- "with, together" + the Germanic root *lik- "body, form; like, same" (source also of Old English lic "body, corpse;" see lich). Etymologically analogous to Latin conform. The modern form (rather than *lich) may be from a northern descendant of the Old English word's Norse cognate, glikr.

Formerly with comparative liker and superlative likest (still in use 17c.). The preposition (c. 1200) and the adverb (c. 1300) both are from the adjective. As a conjunction, first attested early 16c., short for like as, like unto. Colloquial like to "almost, nearly" ("I like to died laughing") is 17c., short for was like to/had like to "come near to, was likely." To feel like "want to, be in the mood for" is 1863, originally American English. Proverbial pattern as in like father, like son is recorded from 1540s.

Meaning "such as" ("A Town Like Alice") attested from 1886. The word has been used as a postponed filler ("going really fast, like") from 1778; as a presumed emphatic ("going, like, really fast") from 1950, originally in counterculture slang and bop talk. Phrase more like it "closer to what is desired" is from 1888.

"contest between nations, peoples, or parties, carried on by force of arms," late Old English wyrre, werre "large-scale military conflict," from Old North French werre "war" (Old French guerre "difficulty, dispute; hostility; fight, combat, war;" Modern French guerre), from Frankish *werra, from Proto-Germanic *werz-a- (source also of Old Saxon werran, Old High German werran, German verwirren "to confuse, perplex"), said in Watkins to be from PIE *wers- (1) "to confuse, mix up," suggesting the original sense was "bring into confusion."

Also from c. 1200 in reference to particular wars. By late 12c. as "state of active opposition or hostility" in a community or between persons. By mid-14c. as "fighting as an activity or profession" (as in man-of-war). Expression in war and peace "at all times" is from late 14c.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian guerra also are from Germanic; Romanic peoples turned to Germanic for a "war" word possibly to avoid Latin bellum (see bellicose) because its form tended to merge with bello- "beautiful."

There seems to have been no common Germanic word for "war" at the dawn of historical times. Old English had many poetic words for "war" (wig, guð, heaðo, hild, all common in personal names), but the usual one to translate Latin bellum was gewin "struggle, strife" (related to win (v.)).

The phrase war is hell is attested by 1850 but commonly attributed to U.S. Civil War Gen. William T. Sherman (1820-1891). It is noted as his by 1882 in newspaper columns, later articles place it in an address before the graduating class of Michigan Military Academy on June 19, 1879. Sherman's or not, Southern orators circumspectly pointed out that, he would know. The phrase is attested by 1850; one 1861 citation (in a Boston peace publication writing on the American crisis) credits it to Napoleon.

To make war is by c., 1200; earlier have war. To be at war is late 14c.; to go to war is mid-15c.

War crime is attested from 1906 (in Oppenheim's "International Law"). War games translates German Kriegspiel (see kriegspiel). War-weary "fatigued by war or fighting" is by 1895 (Shakespeare has war-wearied); war zone is by 1914; war-bride by 1918. War chest is attested from 1901; now usually figurative but the literal sense would be "strong-box for funds used in waging war." 

The causes of war are always falsely represented ; its honour is dishonest and its glory meretricious, but the challenge to spiritual endurance, the intense sharpening of all the senses, the vitalising consciousness of common peril for a common end, remain to allure those boys and girls who have just reached the age when love and friendship and adventure call more persistently than at any later time. The glamour may be the mere delirium of fever, which as soon as war is over dies out and shows itself for the will-o'-the-wisp that it is, but while it lasts no emotion known to man seems as yet to have quite the compelling power of this enlarged vitality. [Vera Brittain, "Testament of Youth"]

The world will never have lasting peace so long as men reserve for war the finest human qualities. [John Foster Dulles, Speech on the Marshall Plan, 1948]