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
- 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
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | lovely | lovely: loving, filled with love |
| 2 | Middle English | un- | — |
| 3 | Old English | un- | negation or absence of: un-, non-; bad; forms... |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | un- | not, un- |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | un- | not, un- |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | n̥- | not, un- |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | ne | not |
via Middle English lufli
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | lufli | — |
| 2 | Old English | luflīc | amiable, loving, lovable |
via Middle English luvelich
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | luvelich | — |