seely

American  

[see-lee] / ˈsi li /

adjective

Archaic.

1. insignificant or feeble; poor.

2. happy; auspicious.

3. good; pious; blessed.

4. foolish; simple-minded.

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Other Word Forms

• seelily
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of seely

before 1000; Middle English sely, Old English gesǣlig happy, equivalent to sǣl happiness + -ig -y ¹; cognate with Dutch zalig, German selig; akin to Old Norse sæll, Gothic sēls good, Old English sēl better; see silly

Example Sentences

"His marks and his tokens are known very well; He always is led with a dog and a bell: A seely old man, God knoweth, is he, Yet he is the father of pretty Bessee."

From A Bundle of Ballads by Morley, Henry

An how can you, a seely man,     Jitch seely journey make?

From The Dialect of the West of England; Particularly Somersetshire by Jennings, James

And equally familiar is the following:— "While the grass groweth the seely horse starveth."

From The Folk-lore of Plants by Dyer, T. F. Thiselton (Thomas Firminger Thiselton)

"My father," she said, "is soon to be seen: The seely blind beggar of Bethnal Green, That daily sits begging for charit-ie, He is the good father of pretty Bessee."

From A Bundle of Ballads by Morley, Henry

Examples are: the double negative with ne; eyen, lenger, doen, ycladd, harrowd, purchas, raught, seely, stowre, swinge, owch, and withouten.

From Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I by Spenser, Edmund