Childlike means having the innocence of a child. Childlike wonder, childlike faith, a childlike delight.
It is warm where childish is a criticism, and the pair is the clearest example in English of how -like and -ish pull in opposite directions. Childlike wonder is close to a fixed phrase. Note that the same split runs through womanly and womanish, and manly and mannish.
1adjectivechildlikeHaving the innocence of a child.
“Even at eighty, she looked at the world with childlike wonder.”
synonyms: innocent, guileless
childlike is a quality of innocence.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵelt- — womb
Proto-Germanic
*kelþaz — womb; fetus
Proto-West Germanic
*kilþ
Old English
ċild
Middle English
child
English
child
English, today
childlike
From child + -like. child comes from Middle English child, from Old English ċild, from Proto-West Germanic kilþ, kelþ, from Proto-Germanic kelþaz (“womb; fetus”), from Proto-Indo-European ǵelt- (“womb”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European gel- (“to ball up, amass”). Cognate with Danish kuld (“brood, litter”), Swedish kull (“brood, litter”), Icelandic kelta, kjalta (“lap”), Gothic 𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹 (“womb”), Sanskrit जर्त, जर्तु (“vulva”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA