'potlike' originates from English, specifically the combination of the noun 'pot' and the suffix '-like', where 'pot' meant 'a container' and the suffix '-like' meant 'having the form or characteristics of.'

'pot' comes from Old English 'pott' (a container), and the adjective-forming element '-like' derives from Old English '-lic'/'līc' (meaning 'body, form'); these elements combined in Middle English and continued into modern English as the compound adjective 'potlike'.

Initially it meant simply 'having the form of a pot,' and over time it has retained this basic meaning as 'resembling a pot' with little semantic change.