adjLaughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance. · Absurdly large. · Good; pious. · Holy.
nounA silly person. · A term of address. · A mistake.
advSillily: in a silly manner.
Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventoryFrom Middle English seely, sēlī, from Old English sǣliġ, ġesǣliġ (“lucky, fortunate”), from Proto-West Germanic *sālīg, from *sāli; equivalent to seel (“happiness, bliss”) + -y. Doublet of Seelie.
The semantic evolution is “lucky” to “innocent” to “naive” to “foolish”. Compare the similar evolution of daft (originally meaning “accommodating”), and almost the reverse with nice (originally meaning “ignorant”).
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Inherited-form mentionseelyenm
- Inherited-form mentionsǣliġang
- Inherited-form mention*sālīggmw-pro
- Doublet mentionSeelieen
This page abbreviates 13 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
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