English
weakly
Weakly comes from Old English wāclīċ ‘feeble, poor, paltry’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *waikalīkaz.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*waikalīkazreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150wāclīċ‘feeble, poor, paltry’
- Old English, derivedc. 450–1150wāclīċe
- Englishearliest quotation 1885weakly
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*waikalīkazreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150wāclīċ‘feeble, poor, paltry’
- Old English, derivedc. 450–1150wāclīċe
- Englishearliest quotation 1885weakly
Earliest quotation: 1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: “I lay in weakly case and confined to my…”
Formed from weak + -ly
Proto-Indo-European *h₃weyg- ‘to start moving’
…
Proto-Germanic *wīkwaną ‘to yield, cease, fold’
Proto-Germanic *waikwaz ‘weak, soft, pliable’
Old Norse veikr ‘pliant; weak’
Middle English waik
English weak
Every English word from Proto-Germanic *waikalīkaz
Another origin of weakly
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weyk-‘to bend, wind’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*waikwaz‘weak, soft, pliable’reconstructed
- Old Norsec. 800–1350veikr‘pliant’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500weyk‘weak’
- Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500weykly‘without strength or force’
- Englishtodayweakly
Today it means
adj Frail, sickly or of a delicate constitution; weak.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *waikalīkaz / weakly