grisly

grisly · adjective, noun¹

1. Old English · inherited fromongrislic
2. Old English · inherited fromgrisliċ“grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid”
3. Middle English · inherited fromgrisely
4. English todaygrisly

From Middle English grisely, grysly, grissliȝ, griselich, grislich, from Old English grisliċ (“grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid”), from grīsan (“to shudder with horror; to tremble, to be terrified; to make tremble, to terrify; to agrise, grise”) (unattested but implied in āgrīsan) + -lic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’). The word may also be an aphetic form of Old English ongrislic, agrisenliċ, the past participle of agrīsan (“to agrise”). Compare Danish grusom, Swedish gräslig, Middle Dutch grezelijc (modern Dutch griezelig), Middle High German grisenlich (modern German grässlich, grausen).

grisly · adverb²

From grisle (“horror, terror”) + -ly; compare Middle Dutch griselike, Middle Low German grislike.