'chronicle-like' originates from Modern English, specifically from the noun 'chronicle' combined with the suffix '-like', where 'chronicle' ultimately comes from Medieval Latin 'chronica' (from Greek 'chronos') and '-like' derives from Old English 'lic' meaning 'having the form of'.

'chronicle' changed from Medieval Latin 'chronica' to Old French/Anglo-Norman forms (e.g. 'cronicle') and Middle English 'cronicle'/'chronicle', and the modern English compound 'chronicle-like' developed by adding the productive English suffix '-like'.

Initially, 'chronicle' referred specifically to a written record or annals of events in time, and '-like' meant 'having the form of'; over time the compound came to mean generally 'resembling or presented as a chronological record' in modern usage.