How did 很 come to mean very?
I like to look up the etymology of characters. I just looked up 很。

很 is made of 彳+艮。艮 is 匕 + 目

So I have:
彳step, walk, walk slowly, road
艮 turn around and look in the eye: rude, disobey
匕 turn around
目 eye

How does this combination come to mean 'very'? Did it mean something else in ancient times?

I looked at this because a lot of Chinese people say: 'I very like'， which is not said in English, but in Chinese: 我很喜欢。

Question

How did 很 come to mean very?
I like to look up the etymology of characters. I just looked up 很。

很 is made of 彳+艮。 艮 is 匕 + 目

So I have:
 彳step, walk, walk slowly, road
艮 turn around and look in the eye: rude, disobey
匕 turn around
目 eye

How does this combination come to mean 'very'? Did it mean something else in ancient times?

I looked at this because a lot of Chinese people say: 'I very like'， which is not said in English, but in Chinese: 我很喜欢。

Answer

彳 is the symbol of a pair of man 亻 while 艮 (gèn) is the phonetic element.
Actually in Modern Chinese doesn't mean only "Very":
很 (hěn) currently has the following grammatical points associated with it:

Simple "noun + adjective" sentences 真很奇怪
Special verbs 我很羡慕他
The opposite of "cha hen duo" 差很多 is "chabuduo" 差不多
Adjectival complement 那个地方漂亮得很

I guess the double step indicates the "more/very/quite" meaning and I also guess it's a relatively new meaning because it doesn't appear in all the 成语,俗语... Cantonese language is quite similar to the ancient original version of the written Chinese and there they don't use any 很 but they use 好 to express the same meaning.

cheers

Answer

清代陈昌治刻本《说文解字》卷二,彳部：很,不听从也.一曰行难也.一曰盭也.从彳[emoji][emoji]声.
清代段玉裁《说文解字注》：（很）不听从也.一曰行难也.从彳.[emoji][emoji]声.胡[emoji][emoji]切.十三部.一曰盭也.盭,弼戾也.韵会无此四字.
就是说很一开始的意思是不听从，难劝说，后来逐步演化成程度副词的

Answer

彳 is the symbol of a pair of man 亻 while 艮 (gèn) is the phonetic element.
Actually in Modern Chinese doesn't mean only "Very":
很 (hěn) currently has the following grammatical points associated with it:

Simple "noun + adjective" sentences 真很奇怪
Special verbs 我很羡慕他
The opposite of "cha hen duo" 差很多 is "chabuduo" 差不多
Adjectival complement  那个地方漂亮得很

I guess the double step indicates the "more/very/quite" meaning and I also guess it's a relatively new meaning because it doesn't appear in all the 成语,俗语... Cantonese language is quite similar to the ancient original version of the written Chinese and there they don't use any 很 but they use 好 to express the same meaning.

cheers