Unnumbered source etymology · variant 1/2
Original entry ↗Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing. · Displeasing to the ear or some other sense. · Offensive to one's sensibilities or morality. · Ill-natured; crossgrained; quarrelsome.
Inherited from Middle English ugly, uggely, uglike, borrowed from Old Norse uggligr (“fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance”), from uggr (“fear, apprehension, dread”) (possibly related to agg (“strife, hate”)), equivalent to ug + -ly. Cognate with Scots ugly, uglie, Icelandic ugglegur. Meaning softened to "very unpleasant to look at" around the late 14th century, and sense of "morally offensive" attested from around 1300. For the meaning development compare Bulgarian грозен (grozen) (< Proto-Slavic *grozьnъ), Russian стра́шный (strášnyj) (< Proto-Slavic *strašьnъ < *straxъ); Latin foedus (< Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂-).
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
This page abbreviates 1 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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{
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"expansion": "Middle English ugly"
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"expansion": "Inherited from Middle English ugly"
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"3": "uggligr",
"t": "fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance"
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"expansion": "Old Norse uggligr (“fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance”)"
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"name": "af",
"args": {
"1": "en",
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"expansion": "ug + -ly"
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{
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"2": "ugly"
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"expansion": "Scots ugly"
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{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "is",
"2": "ugglegur"
},
"expansion": "Icelandic ugglegur"
},
{
"name": "m+",
"args": {
"1": "bg",
"2": "грозен"
},
"expansion": "Bulgarian грозен (grozen)"
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{
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{
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"2": "стра́шный"
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"expansion": "Russian стра́шный (strášnyj)"
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"expansion": "Proto-Slavic *strašьnъ"
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{
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[
"ugly",
"ugly#Middle_English"
],
[
"uggely",
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[
"uglike",
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],
[
"uggligr",
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[
"uggr",
"uggr#Old_Norse"
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"agg",
"agg#Old_Norse"
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[
"ug",
"ug#English"
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[
"-ly",
"-ly#English:_adjectival"
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[
"ugly",
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[
"uglie",
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[
"ugglegur",
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[
"грозен",
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[
"*grozьnъ",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/grozьnъ"
],
[
"стра́шный",
"страшный#Russian"
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[
"*strašьnъ",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/strašьnъ"
],
[
"*straxъ",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/straxъ"
],
[
"foedus",
"foedus#Latin"
],
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"*bʰeyh₂-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/bʰeyh₂-#Proto-Indo-European:_fear"
]
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"descendants": [
{
"lang": "Sranan Tongo",
"lang_code": "srn",
"word": "ogri"
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],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "adj",
"glosses": [
"Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing.",
"Displeasing to the ear or some other sense.",
"Offensive to one's sensibilities or morality.",
"Ill-natured; crossgrained; quarrelsome."
],
"tags": [
"Southern-US"
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