Etymology

subtly

S1U1B3T1L1Y4

Today it means: With subtleness, in a subtle manner; with cleverness rather than brute force. Full definition →

Middle English sotilly
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromsotilly
  2. English todaysubtly

From Middle English sotilly; equivalent to subtle + -ly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.