knightly
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English knyghtly, knightlich; equivalent to knight -ly. Cognate with Old English cnihtlīċ (“boyish”), Dutch knechtelijk (“servile”), German knechtlich (“menial”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]knightly (comparative knightlier, superlative knightliest)
- Of or pertaining to a knight or knights.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25:
- Where noyse of armes, or vew of martiall guize / Might not reuiue desire of knightly exercize.
- Befitting a knight; formally courteous (as a knight); chivalrous, gallant and courtly.
- knightly combat
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]formally courteous (as a knight); chivalrous, gallant and courtly
Adverb
[edit]knightly (comparative knightlier, superlative knightliest)
- In the manner of a knight; chivalrously.
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 25:
- Mar. In Gods name, and the Kings, say who yͧ [thou] art.
And why thou com'st thus knightly clad in Armes?
- 1822, Lord Byron, Werner, act IV, scene i:
- Who backs a horse, or bears a hawk, or wears
A sword like him! Whose plume nods knightlier?
- Who backs a horse, or bears a hawk, or wears
- 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Guinevere”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 227:
- He, reverencing king's blood in a bad man,
Made such excuses as he might, and these
Full knightly without scorn; for in those days
No knight of Arthur's noblest dealt in scorn.
References
[edit]- James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Knightly, adv.”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume V (H–K), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 734.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms suffixed with -ly (adjectival)
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/aɪtli
- Rhymes:English/aɪtli/2 syllables
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English adverbs