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Lively

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lively¹

  • /ˈlaɪv.li/ US, UK

Where it comes from

From Middle English lyvely, lifly, from Old English līflīċ (“living, lively, long-lived, necessary to life, vital”), from Proto-West Germanic *lībalīk (“living, lively”), equivalent to life + -ly. Cognate with Scots lively, lifely (“of or pertaining to life, vital, living, life-like”), Old High German līblīh (“living, animated”), German leiblich (“bodily, corporeal”). Doublet of lifely and lifelike.

adjective livelier · liveliest · lifely

  1. Full of life; energetic, vivacious. But wherefore comes old Manoa in such haſt, / With youthful ſteps? much livelier then e're while / He ſeems.
  2. Bright, glowing, vivid; strong, vigorous. The colours of the prism are manifestly more full, intense, and lively that those of natural bodies.
  3. archaic Endowed with or manifesting life; living. c. 1600, Philemon Holland chaplets of gold and silver resembling lively flowers and leaves
  4. archaic Representing life; lifelike. I spied the lively picture of my father.
  5. archaic Airy; animated; spirited. From grave to gay, from lively to ſevere, [...]
  6. Fizzy; foamy; tending to produce a large head in the glass.

Similar: frisky, peppy, zestful, live, vital

noun livelies · lifely

  1. informal Term of address. Speak the word, my livelies, and I'll pilot her in.

lively²

  • /ˈlaɪv.li/ US, UK

Where it comes from

From Middle English lyvely, lifly, from Old English līflīċe, equivalent to life + -ly.

adverb more lively · most lively

  1. Vigorously.
  2. Vibrantly, vividly.
  3. obsolete In a lifelike manner. Him to a dainty flowre she did transmew, / Which in that cloth was wrought, as if it liuely grew.

Similar: sprightly

Lively³

  • /ˈlaɪvli/

Sounds like lively

Where it comes from

From lively.

proper noun

  1. A characteristical surname.
  2. An urban area of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
  3. An unincorporated community in Benton County, Missouri.
  4. An unincorporated community in Kaufman County, Texas.
  5. An unincorporated community in Lancaster County, Virginia.
  6. An unincorporated community in Fayette County, West Virginia.

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