Dictionary

loathly en · ADJ · etymology 1

Etymology

From Middle English lothli, loothly, from Old English lāþlīċ (“loathly, hateful, horrible, repulsive, unpleasant”); equivalent to loath + -ly.

Meanings

1. Loathsome; hideous.
   • And Merlin answered, 'Overquick art thou / To catch a loathly plume fallen from the wing / Of that foul bird of rapine whose whole prey / Is man's good name: he never wronged his bride. 1885, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King:
   • Pro. Then, as my gueſt, and thine owne acquiſition / Worthily purchas'd, take my daughter : But / If thou do'ſt breake her Virgin-knot, before / All ſanctimonious ceremonies may / With full and holy right, be miniſtred, / No ſweet aſperſion ſhall the heauens let fall / To make this contract grow; but barraine hate, / Sower-ey'd diſdaine, and diſcord ſhall beſtrew / The vnion of your bed, with weedes ſo loathly / That you ſhall hate it both : Therefore take heede, / As Hymens Lamps ſhall light you. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 14:
   • This unremitting insistence on his color, this continual shunting him into obscure and filthy ways, gradually gave Peter a loathly sensation. 1922, T.S. Stribling, Birthright:
   • Her loathly viſage viewing with diſdaine, / Eftſoones I thought her ſuch, as ſhe me told, / And would haue kild her; but with faigned paine, / The falſe witch did my wrathfull hand with-hold; / So left her, where ſhe now is turnd to treen mould. 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Volume 1:

Forms

Deriveds

loathliness

loathly en · ADV · etymology 2

Etymology

From Middle English *lothli, loothly, from Old English lāþlīċe (“hatefully”), from lāþlīċ + -e (adverbial suffix); equivalent to loath + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a loathsome manner; disgustingly.
2. Unwillingly; reluctantly.

Forms