'web-like' originates from Old English, specifically the word 'webb' (or 'web') and the adjectival suffix '-like' from Old English 'líc', where 'webb' meant 'woven fabric' or 'cobweb' and 'líc' meant 'having the form or likeness of'.

'web' changed from Old English 'webb' (from Proto-Germanic *wabją) and combined with the Old English suffix '-líc' to form compounds such as 'web-líc', which later became the modern English compound 'web-like'.

Initially, the components meant 'woven fabric' (for 'web') and 'having the form of' (for '-like'); over time the compound came to mean 'resembling a web' or 'netlike' in modern usage.