Where does “lovely” come from?

Lovely comes from Old English luflīc, a compound of lufu (love) and the adjectival suffix -līc (like, having the quality of).

lovely (English): Beautiful; charming; very pleasing in form,...

Definitions

  1. Beautiful; charming; very pleasing in form,...

Ancestry of “lovely”, step by step

lovely traces back through 3 separate lines of ancestry.

via Middle English lovely

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishlovelylovely: loving, filled with love
2Middle Englishun-—
3Old Englishun-negation or absence of: un-, non-; bad; forms...
4Proto-West Germanicun-not, un-
5Proto-Germanicun-not, un-
6Proto-Indo-Europeann̥-not, un-
7Proto-Indo-Europeannenot

via Middle English lufli

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishlufli—
2Old Englishluflīcamiable, loving, lovable

via Middle English luvelich

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishluvelich—

Words derived from “lovely”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European ne →Every word from Proto-Indo-European n̥- →Every word from Old English un- →