English
simply
Simply comes from Middle English symply, equivalent to simple + -ly (with haplology).
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500symply‘simply, frankly’
- Englishearliest quotation 1791simply
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500symply‘simply, frankly’
- Englishearliest quotation 1791simply
Earliest quotation: 1791, Charlotte Smith, Celestina: “Mrs. Thorold had told her sons that a young…”
Formed from simple + -ly
Latin simplex ‘simple, onefold’
Old French simple ‘innocent’
Middle English symple ‘guiltless’
English simple
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pel-
film, felt, push, filter, powder, fold, pulse, pillow, repeal, complain, flaw, pollen, palate, expel, repel, palpable, palladium, propel, palatable, compulsive, pall, pelt, wallow, peloton, polemic, pollinate, palatal, muffle, pulver, tuple, palp, pillion, apoplexy, interpolate, peplum, 64 more
through Proto-Indo-European *sem- ‘together, one’
some, same, single, seem, similar, soft, sam, resemble, assemble, simulation, resemblance, singular, sincerely, anomaly, simultaneous, sincerity, semblance, simulate, anomalous, homeopathic, synapse, homology, assimilate, hyphen, insincere, synchronise, homolog, simile, sempre, simulacrum, 47 more
Today it means
adv In a simple way or state; considered in or by itself; without addition; alone.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English symply / simply