English

lovely

/ˈlʌv.li/
Delightful for beauty, harmony, or grace.

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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    From Middle English lovely, luvelich, lufli, from Old English luflīċ, luflīc (“amiable, loving, lovable”), equivalent to love + -ly.

    Etymology 2

    From Middle English lovely, luveliche, from Old English luflīċe (“lovingly, amiably, kindly, dearly, with good will or love, willingly”), equivalent to love + -ly.

    Etymology 3

    From Middle English lofly, lovely (“praiseworthy; laudatory”), equivalent to lofe + -ly. Cognate with Dutch loffelijk (“laudable, praiseworthy”), German löblich (“commendable, laudable, praiseworthy”), Swedish lovlig (“permissible”). More at lofe, love.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishlovely
      • inheritedOld Englishluflīċ “amiable, dear, likable, pleasant, lovely; worthy of love, lovable”
        • inheritedProto-Germanic*leubalīkaz “lovely”
          • inheritedProto-Indo-European*lewbʰ- “love, care, desire”
      • inheritedOld Englishluflīċe “lovingly, amiably, kindly, dearly, with good will or love, willingly”
    • surface analysisEnglishlove “A deep caring for the existence of another.”
    • suffixEnglish-ly “Used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "behaving like, or having a …”
      • inheritedMiddle English-ly
        • inheritedOld English-līċe
        • inheritedOld English-līċ
    • inheritedMiddle Englishlofly
    • surface analysisEnglishlofe “An offer; choice; an opportunity; chance.”

    Related: Dutch loffelijk, German löblich, Swedish lovlig

    Sources