The story
- Old English · inherited fromcēnlīċe“keenly, boldly, courageously”
- Middle English · inherited fromkenely
- English todaykeenly
From Middle English kenely, kenliche, from Old English cēnlīċe (“keenly, boldly, courageously”), equivalent to keen + -ly. Cognate with Saterland Frisian köinlik (“boldly”), archaic German kühnlich (“bravely”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.