Etymology

worthly

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Today it means: Having great worth or value; valuable; important; dignified; stately; excellent; worthy; deserving (of). Full definition →

Middle English worthely ← Old English weorþlīċ ← Proto-Germanic *werþalīkaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*werþalīkaz“worthy”
  2. Old English · inherited fromweorþlīċ“important, valuable, splendid, worthy, estimable, honorable, distinguished, exalted, fit, becoming”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromworthely
  4. English todayworthly

From Middle English worthely, wurthlich, from Old English weorþlīċ (“important, valuable, splendid, worthy, estimable, honorable, distinguished, exalted, fit, becoming”), from Proto-Germanic *werþalīkaz (“worthy”), equivalent to worth + -ly. Cognate with Old Frisian werdelik, Old Saxon werthlīk, Old High German werdlīh.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.