-ly

The suffix -ly in English is usually a contraction of -like, similar to the Anglo-Saxon -lice and German -lich.^[1] It is commonly added to an adjective to form an adverb, but in some cases it is used to form an adjective, such as ugly or manly. When "-ly" is used to form an adjective, it is attached to a noun instead of an adjective (i.e., friendly, lovely). The adjective to which the suffix is added may have been lost from the language, as in the case of early, in which the Anglo-Saxon word aer only survives in the poetic usage ere.^[2] This morpheme tends to mean "to act in a way that is?".

Though the origin of the suffix is Germanic, it may now be added to adjectives of Latin origin, as in publicly.^[2]

When the suffix is added to a word ending in the letter y, the y before the suffix is replaced with the letter i, as in happily (from happy). This does not always apply in the case of monosyllabic words; for example, shy becomes shyly (but dry can become dryly or drily, and gay becomes gaily). Other examples are heavily (from heavy), luckily (from lucky), temporarily (from temporary), easily (from easy), emptily (from empty), and funnily (from funny).^[3][4]

When the suffix is added to a word ending in double l, only y is added with no additional l; for example, full becomes fully. Note also wholly (from whole), which may be pronounced either with a single l sound (like holy) or with a doubled (geminate) l.^[5]

When the suffix is added to an adjective ending in a vowel letter followed by the letter l, it results in an adverb spelled with -lly, for example, the adverb centrally from the adjective central, but without a geminated l sound in pronunciation. Other examples are actually, historically, really, carefully, especially, and usually. When the suffix is added to a word ending in a consonant followed by le (pronounced as a syllabic l), generally the mute e is dropped, the l loses its syllabic nature, and no additional l is added; this category is mostly composed of adverbs that end in -ably or -ibly (and correspond to adjectives ending in -able or -ible), such as probably, presumably, visibly, terribly, horribly and possibly, but it also includes other words such as nobly, feebly, simply, doubly, triply, quadriply and idly. However, there are a few words where this contraction is not always applied, such as brittlely.

When -ly is added to an adjective ending -ic, the adjective is usually first expanded by the addition of -al. For example, there are adjectives historic and historical, but the only adverb is historically. Other examples are basically, alphabetically, scientifically, chemically, classically, and astronomically. There are a few exceptions such as publicly.^[6][7]

Adjectives in -ly can form inflected comparative and superlative forms (such as friendlier, friendliest, lovelier, loveliest), but most adverbs with this ending do not (a word such as sweetly uses the periphrastic forms more sweetly, most sweetly). For more details see Adverbs and Comparison in the English grammar article.

The Libyan domain, .ly was used for domain hacks for this suffix.^[8][9]

There are some words that are neither adverbs nor adjectives, and yet end with -ly, such as apply, family, supply. There are also adverbs in English that do not end with -ly, such as now, then, tomorrow, today, upstairs, downstairs, yesterday, overseas, behind, already.

See also

• -ing – the suffix used to form gerunds and present tense
• -ed
• -logy
• -ism

References

1. The suffix -ly is related to the word like. They are also related to the obsolete English word lych or lich, and German Leiche, meaning "corpse"; according to the Oxford English Dictionary (entry on lich, etymology section), these words are probably descended from an earlier word that meant something like "shape" or "form". The use of like in the place of -ly as an adverb ending is seen in Appalachian English, from the hardening of the ch in "lich" into a k, originating in northern British speech.

   In this way, -ly in English is cognate with the common German adjective ending -lich, the Dutch ending -lijk, the Anglo-Saxon -lice, the Indonesian and Malay -lah, the Dano-Norwegian -lig, and Norwegian -leg.

2. Charles Knight (1866), "Arts and sciences", The English encyclopedia, vol. 1
3. Seely, John (1998). The Oxford Guide to Writing and Speaking. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-863144-6.
4. Timothy, Rasinski (2017-03-01). "Suffix -ly". Starting with Prefixes and Suffixes. Shell Education. ISBN 978-1-61813-912-2.
5. Cuerpo de Maestros. Inglés. Temario. EDITORIAL CEP. 2016-11-18. ISBN 978-84-681-8205-6.
6. Isitt, David (1983). Crazic, Menty, and Idiotal: An Inquiry Into the Use of Suffixes -al, -ic, -ly, and -y in Modern English. Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. ISBN 978-91-7346-122-1.
7. Rules for adding suffixes –ment and -ly and the exceptions (PDF), 5 October 2020
8. .ly Domain Name Extension, 21 March 2019
9. Meyerson, Rob (2021-12-14). Brand Naming: The Complete Guide to Creating a Name for Your Company, Product, or Service. Business Expert Press. ISBN 978-1-63742-156-7.

Further reading

• Killie, Kristin (2015-01-01). "Secondary grammaticalization and the English adverbial -ly suffix". Language Sciences. 47: 199–214. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2014.10.003. hdl:11250/276923. ISSN 0388-0001.
• Giegerich, Heinz J. (2012). "The morphology of -ly and the categorial status of "adverbs" in English". English Language & Linguistics. 16 (3): 341–359. doi:10.1017/S1360674312000147. hdl:20.500.11820/680fb68c-27ca-4805-99a9-ce0a5d630355. ISSN 1360-6743. S2CID 56272941.
• Nevalainen, Terttu (2008). "Social variation in intensifier use: constraint on -ly adverbialization in the past". English Language & Linguistics. 12 (2): 289–315. doi:10.1017/S1360674308002633. ISSN 1469-4379. S2CID 122875588.
• Arnold Zwicky (1995), Why English adverbial -ly is not inflectional (PDF)