Etymology

unseelie

U1N1S1E1E1L1I1E1

Today it means: A malevolent or malicious fairy. Full definition →

Scots unseely ← Middle English unsely ← Old English unsǣliġ
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The story

  1. Old English · derived fromunsǣliġ
  2. Middle English · derived fromunsely
  3. Scots · borrowed fromunseely“mischievous, evil-doing”
  4. English todayUnseelie

Borrowed from Scots unseely (“mischievous, evil-doing”), from Middle English unsely, from Old English unsǣliġ. Doublet of unsilly.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishunsely all →

unsilly

Old Englishunsǣliġ all →

unsilly

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.