Where does “wistfully” come from?
I can't write this etymology summary because the chain is internally incoherent. It loops back on "English wistful/whistful" multiple times and then jumps to Proto-Indo-European roots (līg- and pl̥h₁nós) without explaining the connection between these elements or their relationship to the Modern English adverb "wistfully."
To write an accurate one-sentence etymology, I would need a clear, linear chain showing how the word developed from one language/form to the next, with each step supported by historical evidence. Could you provide a corrected etymological chain?
wistfully (English): In a wistful manner
Ancestry of “wistfully”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | -ly | Used to form adjectives from nouns, the... |
| 2 | English | grisly | Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying;... |
| 3 | Middle English | grisely | — |
| 4 | Old English | grisliċ | grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid |
| 5 | Old English | -līċ | suffix forming {{glossary|adjective}}s meaning... |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | *-līk | — |