An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/gleich

by Friedrich Kluge

gleich, adjective, ‘like, similar, equal, direct,’ from the equivalent Middle High German gelîch, Old High German gilîh(hh); common to Teutonic in the same sense; compare Gothic galeiks, Old Icelandic glíkr, Anglo-Saxon gelîc, English like, Dutch gelijk, Old Saxon gilîk. This specifically Teutonic adjective is compounded of the particle ge-, Gothic ga-, and a substantive lîka-, ‘body,’ whose cognates are discussed under Leiche; the compound meant literally ‘having a symmetrical body.’ The word lîk, Modern High German -lich, as the second component, is always used in the same sense; e.g., weiblich, literally ‘having a woman's body’ (it is preserved also in the pronouns welcher, solcher, literally ‘having what kind of body? having a body of that kind’; yet see these words). —