Dictionary

bettersome en · ADJ

Etymology

Etymology tree English better Proto-Indo-European *sem- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *somHós Proto-Germanic *samaz Proto-Germanic *-samaz Proto-West Germanic *-sam Old English -sum Middle English -som English -some English bettersome From better + -some.

Meanings

1. Characterised or marked by betterness; finer; superior; improved.
   • Altogether I have a bettersome feeling. 1902, Alexander Grant, Physician and Friend:
   • "[…] but my friends, there's a speretil and bettersome idee: —one penny is the law, and tother's the gospel." 1855, Baynard Rush Hall, The New Purchase:
   • Land, and a bettersome sort of room with a bed in it on the right. 1859, James Hamilton, Memoirs of the Life of James Wilson, page 245:
   • We then paced up and down the High-street, viewing the shops becoming gradually shutterless—the milkman paying his early call—and pretty, rosy-cheeked country lasses, with their pails and brooms, tidying up the doorways of the more bettersome abodes; […] 1857, Matthias Cathrow Turner, A saunter through Surrey, page 169:

Forms