-ly

See also: Appendix:Variations of "ly"

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • (UK) IPA^(key): [liː]
    • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [lɪ]
  • (US) IPA^(key): [li]
  • (New Zealand) IPA^(key): [ɫiː]

Etymology 1

From Middle English -ly, -li, -lik, -lich, from Old English -līċ, from Proto-West Germanic *-līk, from Proto-Germanic *-līkaz (“having the body or form of”), from *līką (“body”) (whence lich). In form, probably influenced by Old Norse -ligr (“-ly”) (Norwegian Bokmål -lig, Faroese -ligur, Icelandic -legur). Cognate with Dutch -lijk, German -lich, Danish -lig and Swedish -lig. Doublet of -like.

Suffix

-ly

1. Used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "behaving like, or having a nature typical of what is denoted by the noun" Similar in meaning to -like but most often paired with animate nouns.

   ‎man ‎-ly → ‎manly

   ‎friend ‎-ly → ‎friendly

2. Used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "appearing like, resembling, or having the likeness of what is denoted by the noun".

   ‎bloom ‎-ly → ‎bloomly

   ‎priest ‎-ly → ‎priestly

3. Used to form adjectives from nouns specifying time intervals, the adjectives having the sense of "occurring at such intervals".

   ‎month ‎-ly → ‎monthly

   ‎day ‎-ly → ‎daily

Synonyms

• -ish
• -like
• -y
• (suggesting degree) -ous
• (suggesting degree) -some
• (likeness or resemblance) -oid, quasi-, para-, -form/-iform, -esque, -some, (restricted to casual registers) -ass, (forms adjectives from nouns only) -like

Derived terms

typical of a noun

• beastly
• friendly
• manly
• niggardly

resembling a noun

• bloomly
• priestly

occurring at intervals

• bimonthly
• biweekly
• daily
• fortnightly
• hourly
• monthly
• weekly
• yearly

Translations

forming adjectives from nouns, in the sense "similar to, like, characteristic of"

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 地 (zh) (di); (somewhat similar) 的 (zh) (de)

• Danish: -lig, -agtig
• Dutch: -achtig (nl), -lijk (nl), -ig (nl)
• Esperanto: -a (eo)
• Faroese: -ligur
• Finnish: -mainen (fi)
• French: -ment (fr)
• Galician: -oso (gl) m, -mente (gl)
• Georgian: -ური (-uri), -ული (-uli)
• German: -lich (de), -ig (de), -isch (de), -haft (de)
• Hungarian: -s (hu)/-os (hu)/-as (hu)/-es (hu)/-ös (hu), -i (hu), -ias/-ies
• Icelandic: -legur (is)
• Ido: -atra
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: -ane (ku)

• Middle English: -ly
• Old English: -līċ
• Persian: مآبانه (-me-âbâne)
• Portuguese: -oso (pt), -ento (pt), -mente (pt)
• Russian: -ский (-skij) (adjective, phonetic changes and additions occur), -ски (-ski) (adverb)
• Serbo-Croatian: -ně
• Spanish: -oso (es), -mente (es) n
• Swedish: -aktig (sv), -artad (sv), -lig (sv), -isk (sv)
• Turkish: -ca (tr), -ça (tr), -ce (tr), -çe (tr), -cıl, -çıl, -cil, -çil
• Urdu: -ی (-ī)
• Welsh: -us (cy)

forming adjectives from nouns, in the sense "occurring at such intervals"

• Danish: -lig
• Dutch: -lijks (nl)
• Finnish: -ttainen (combination of two suffixes for adjectives; only the first suffix for adverbs)
• Hungarian: -i (hu), -nkénti/-onkénti/-ankénti/-enkénti/-önkénti
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: -ane (ku)

• Swedish: -lig (sv)
• Turkish: -lik (tr)

Etymology 2

From Middle English -ly, -li, -liche, from Old English -līċe.

Suffix

-ly

2. Used to form adverbs from adjectives and nouns.

   ‎sudden ‎-ly → ‎suddenly

   ‎eerie ‎-ly → ‎eerily

   ‎year ‎-ly → ‎yearly

Usage notes

In prescriptive usage, derived adverbs in -ly are often preferred to those which are identical in form to the base adjective (e.g., badly instead of bad), despite the fact that the latter have been in continuous use since the earliest stages of the language and represent the norm in languages closely related to English, such as Dutch and German. This is the cause of hypercorrections such as I feel badly (where feel actually represents a copular verb, which traditionally requires an adjectival complement rather than an adverb).

Various sound changes and spelling changes occur for -ly:

• If an adjective ends with a consonant followed by y, it changes into i before adding the suffix (e.g. ready > readily, easy > easily).
• If an adjective ends with ll, one l drops out to avoid a triple letter (e.g. full > fully, shrill > shrilly).
• If an adjective ends with a syllabic /l̩/ (spelled -le after a consonant), euphony causes the -le to drop out. Examples include -ably and -ibly, but also noble > nobly, ample > amply, and idle > idly, among others.
• Adjectives ending in -ic generally take -ally (public > publicly being an exception).

Derived terms

• -ally

Translations

used to form adverbs from adjectives

• Ainu: no
• Aragonese: -mén
• Armenian: -բար (-bar), -որեն (-oren)
• Asturian: -mente
• Basque: -eki
• Catalan: -ment (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (similar function, but used in different ways) 地 (zh) (de)

• Czech: -ě
• Danish: -t (or, with some adjectives, no suffix at all)
• Dutch: (the adverb is usually the same as the adjective: no change in form), -erwijs (nl), -lijk (nl), -jes (nl), genoeg (nl) (following the adjective)
• Esperanto: -e (eo)
• Estonian: -lt
• Faroese: -liga
• Finnish: -sti (fi) (manner), -n (fi) (extent: the genitive form of the adjective)
• French: -ment (fr)
• Galician: -mente (gl)
• Georgian: -ად (-ad), -დ (-d), -ურად (-urad), -ულად (-ulad)
• German: (normal adverbs are the same in form as the respective adjectives); -erweise (forms adverbs that modify phrases or sentences), -lich (de)
• Greek: -α (el) (-a), -ως (el) (-os) (each replacing the final syllable of the adjective)
• Hebrew: ב- (he) (be-/bi-) (adverbs are formed from nouns, rather than adjectives)
• Hungarian: -an (hu)/-en (hu), -lag (hu)/-leg (hu), -l (hu)/-ul (hu)/-ül (hu)
• Icelandic: -lega
• Ido: -e
• Igbo: na (ig)
• Italian: -mente (it)
• Japanese: ...く (ja) (-ku) (い-adjectives drop い, add く), ...に (ja) (-ni) (な-adjectives drop な, add に)
• Latin: -ē, -iter
• Latvian: -i
• Lithuanian: -i
• Macedonian: -о (-o)
• Middle English: -ly
• Mongolian: -хан (-xan)
• Navajo: -go
• Neapolitan: -mente
• Norman: -ment
• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: (normal adverbs are the same in form as the respective adjectives)

  Norwegian Nynorsk: (normal adverbs are the same in form as the respective adjectives)

• Occitan: -ment (oc)
• Old English: -e, -līċe
• Persian: ـانه (-âne); ـیها (-ihâ)
• Polish: -o (pl)
• Portuguese: -mente (pt)
• Russian: -о (ru) (-o), -е (ru) (-e), по-...-ски (po-...-ski) (forming adverbs from -ский adjectives), -ски (-ski)
• Sanskrit: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: -mente (es)
• Swedish: -t (sv)
• Turkish: bir şekilde, -ce (tr), -ca (tr), -çe (tr), -ça (tr)
• Walloon: -mint (wa)

See also

English terms suffixed with -ly

Anagrams

• -yl, YL

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English -līċ. Related to lich.

Alternative forms

• -lich, -liche, -lyche, -lych, -li, -lie, -lye, -like, -lik, -lyke, -lyk, -le, -lei, -lice, -lic, -liȝ, -lece, -luch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /-liː/, /-liːt͡ʃ/, /-lit͡ʃ/

Suffix

-ly (comparative -lyere, superlative -lyest)

2. Used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "like or characteristic of what is denoted by the noun".
3. Appended to adjectives in order to render meaning of the adjective either more intense or more approximate.

   E.g. ded (“no longer alive”), dedly (“causing, resembling or subject to death”); schort (“not long”), shortly (“momentary; very brief”)

Usage notes

• -ly is generally the most common variant of this suffix, though in some words, other variants may be more common, such as -lich(e).

Derived terms

Middle English terms suffixed with -ly (adjectival)

Derived terms

• aerly
• armlich
• bigly
• bodily
• craftly
• evenly
• fayrely
• frely
• freschely
• gladly
• greefly
• graythely
• gromelich
• groundly
• hedly
• heighly
• hertely
• idafenlic
• kyndely
• lefly
• maydenly
• orgonly
• throly
• yerly

Descendants

• English: -ly
• Scots: -lie

References

• “-lī, suf.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 7 April 2018.

Etymology 2

From Old English -līċe, itself a combination of the adjective-forming suffix -līċ (see etymology 1 above) and the adverbial suffix -e.

Alternative forms

• -lich, -liche, -lyche, -lych, -li, -lie, -lye, -like, -lik, -licke, -lyke, -lyk, -lycke, -leche, -le, -lei, -loche, -lice, -liȝ, -luche

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /-liː/, /-liːt͡ʃ(ə)/, /-lit͡ʃ(ə)/

Suffix

-ly (comparative -lyere, superlative -lyest)

2. Used to form adverbs from adjectives, and nouns; the adverbs having the sense of "in the manner of what is denoted by the adjective/noun".
3. Optionally appended to adverbs without suffixes with no change to the meaning.

Usage notes

• As with its adjectival equivalent, -ly is generally the most common variant of this suffix, though in some words, other variants may be more common, such as -lich(e).

Derived terms

Middle English terms suffixed with -ly (adverbial)

Derived terms

• atterluche
• bigly
• bodily
• boldely
• craftily
• diȝelliche
• eadiliche
• evenly
• fakenliche
• fayrely
• frely
• freschely
• gidiliche
• gladly
• greefly
• graythely
• gromelich
• groundly
• ȝewislice
• hagherlych
• hedly
• heighly
• hertely
• justislich
• kyndely
• throly
• werkmanly
• wisly
• yerly

Descendants

• English: -ly
• Scots: -lie

References

• “-lī, suf.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 7 April 2018.