'bardlike' originates from English, formed from the noun 'bard' (ultimately from Old Irish 'bard') combined with the Old English element 'līc' (now the suffix '-like'), where 'bard' meant 'poet' and 'līc' meant 'similar to'.

'bard' changed from Old Irish 'bard' and the Proto-Celtic '*bardos' and eventually became the modern English word 'bard'; the Old English 'līc' evolved into the productive adjectival suffix '-like' in Middle English, leading to compounds such as 'godlike', 'childlike', and later 'bardlike'.

Initially it meant 'resembling a bard' or 'poet-like'; that core meaning has largely remained the same in modern usage.