Etymology

sweetly

sweet·ly
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Today it means: With a sweet taste or aroma. Full definition →

Middle English swetly ← Old English swētlīċe
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromswētlīċe“sweetly; pleasantly”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromswetly
  3. English todaysweetly

From Middle English swetly, swetely, sweteliche, from Old English swētlīċe (“sweetly; pleasantly”), equivalent to sweet + -ly. Cognate with Old High German swuozlīhho (“sweetly”), Icelandic sætlega (“sweetly; with gratitude”), German süßlich (“sweetish; sugary”), Dutch zoetelijk (“sentimental”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.