Etymology

lovely

love·ly
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Today it means: Delightful for beauty, harmony, or grace. Full definition →

Middle English lovely ← Old English luflīċ
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lovely · adjective, noun1

  1. Old English · inherited fromluflīċ
  2. Middle English · inherited fromlovely
  3. English todaylovely

From Middle English lovely, luvelich, lufli, from Old English luflīċ, luflīc (“amiable, loving, lovable”), equivalent to love + -ly.

lovely · adverb2

  1. Old English · inherited fromluflīċe“lovingly, amiably, kindly, dearly, with good will or love, willingly”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromlovely
  3. English todaylovely

From Middle English lovely, luveliche, from Old English luflīċe (“lovingly, amiably, kindly, dearly, with good will or love, willingly”), equivalent to love + -ly.

lovely · adjective3

  1. Middle English · inherited fromlofly
  2. English todaylovely

From Middle English lofly, lovely (“praiseworthy; laudatory”), equivalent to lofe + -ly. Cognate with Dutch loffelijk (“laudable, praiseworthy”), German löblich (“commendable, laudable, praiseworthy”), Swedish lovlig (“permissible”). More at lofe, love.

Lovely · proper noun4

From lovely.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishluflīċ all →

lovelily

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.