The compound adjective 'sweet-looking' is a relatively modern English formation that combines two native Germanic elements to create a descriptive term for visual appeal. The first element, 'sweet', carries its ancient Indo-European sense of pleasantness from the root swéh₂dus, which originally described taste but broadened to encompass general agreeableness. The second element, 'looking', derives from the Old English verb for seeing, but in this compound, it shifts to a passive sense of 'appearing' or 'seeming'. The logic of the word is transparent: it literally means 'appearing pleasant,' directly linking the abstract quality of sweetness to a person's or thing's visual characteristics, demonstrating how English readily creates new descriptors by combining familiar, concrete words.

Structure: sweet (pleasant) + looking (appearing) - sweet: From Old English swēte (pleasing to the senses, agreeable), from Proto-Germanic swōtuz, from Proto-Indo-European swéh₂dus (sweet, pleasant). Functions as an adjective root describing a quality. - looking: From the present participle of the verb look (to direct one's gaze; to appear). From Old English lōcian (to see, gaze), from Proto-West Germanic lōkōn. Functions as a combining form indicating appearance or semblance.