'fowl-like' originates from Old English elements: the noun 'fugol' (Old English for 'bird'), which developed into modern English 'fowl', and the suffix 'lic' (Old English), which evolved into the English suffix '-like', where 'fugol' meant 'bird' and 'lic' meant 'having the nature of.'

'fowl' changed from Old English 'fugol' to Middle English forms (such as 'foul'/'fowel') and eventually became modern English 'fowl'; the suffix 'lic' in Old English developed through Middle English into the productive suffix '-like', and compounds such as 'fowl-like' arose in modern English.

Initially it combined the original senses—'fowl' meaning 'bird' and '-like' meaning 'similar to'—and over time the compound retained this basic sense, coming to mean specifically 'resembling a bird.'