The story
- Old English · inherited fromranclīċe“showily; boldly”
- Middle English · inherited fromrankli
- English todayrankly
From Middle English rankli, ronkly, from Old English ranclīċe (“showily; boldly”), equivalent to rank + -ly. Cognate with Icelandic rakklega (“boldly; valiantly”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.