Dictionary

wordly en · ADJ

Etymology

From word + -ly. Compare Dutch woordelijk, German wörtlich.

Meanings

1. (rare) Of, relating to, or resembling a word; verbal.
   • But I feel an impulse to scribble wordly words, to stand in a silk hat beside the statue of Liberty and gaze out upon the Atlantic with a Carlylian pensiveness. 1921, Ben Hecht, Erik Dorn - Page 248:
   • "The reality of the wordly words as the word of God is not pneumatologically grounded by Calvin — neither is the church proclaimed word in virtue of its power of divine ordinance a word of God's Spirit imparted for all times, nor is it made more and more God's word through the Holy Spirit—[...] 1970, Benjamin Charles Milner, Calvin's Doctrine of the Church - Page 105:
   • We notice here a shift from 'literal' in a wordly sense (cf. the German wörtlich), pertaining to written words as such, to a descriptive sense, pertaining to how a text (or the world) is understood. 2008, Manuel Dries, Nietzsche on Time and History - Page 157:
   • For in speaking of "syntax," I have employed a concept that is used about the use of words. I have, in other words, "talked" about the nonverbal in a "wordly" way. 1993, William H. Poteat, James M. Nickell, James W. Stines, The Primacy of Persons and the Language of Culture: Essays:

Forms