English
painfully
Painfully comes from Proto-Indo-European *kʷey- ‘to pay’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷey-‘to pay’root as named · steps between not traced
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500peinfully
- Englishearliest quotation 1906painfully
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷey-‘to pay’root as named · steps between not traced
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500peinfully
- Englishearliest quotation 1906painfully
Earliest quotation: 1906, –October, Joseph Conrad: “The unsufficiency and uncandidness of his answer became painfully…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *kʷey- ‘to pay’
penalty, poetry, punishment, poem, poet, punish, pine, titanium, penal, punitive, subpoena, impunity, whey, painless, onomatopoeia, 21 more
Today it means
adv In a painful manner; as if in pain.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kʷey- / painfully