Etymology

yearly

year·ly
Y4E1A1R1L1Y4

Today it means: Happening once every year. Full definition →

Middle English yeerly ← Old English ġēarlīċ
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromġēarlīċ
  2. Middle English · inherited fromyeerly
  3. English todayyearly

From Middle English yeerly, yerely, from Old English ġēarlīċ, ġērlīċ (“yearly, of the year, annual”), equivalent to year + -ly (adjectival suffix) or -ly (adverbial suffix). Cognate with Scots yerelie (“yearly”), Saterland Frisian jierelk (“yearly”), West Frisian jierliks (“yearly”), Dutch jaarlijks (“yearly”), Afrikaans jaarliks (“yearly”), German jährlich (“yearly”), Danish årlig (“yearly”), Norwegian Bokmål årlig (“yearly”), Norwegian Nynorsk årleg (“yearly”), Swedish årlig (“yearly”), Icelandic árlegur (“yearly”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.