Refine this word faster
Sprightly
Definitions
- 1 Animated, gay, or vivacious; lively, spirited.
"Next vnto lumpish Saturn, sprightlie Iove / Moves in his orbe."
- 2 Of a person: full of life and vigour, especially with a light and springy step.
"Shall our example ſloth create, / And make our Sons degenerate? / Our ſprightly youth uſeleſs in War become, / And ſleep in peace and ſlavery at home."
- 3 Of a person: full of life and vigour, especially with a light and springy step.; Especially of an older person: energetic and in good health; spry.
- 4 Of or relating to a sprite; ghostly, spectral. obsolete, rare
"[…] As I ſlept, me thought / Great Iupiter vpon his Eagle back'd / Appear'd to me, with other ſprightly ſhewes / Of mine owne Kindred."
- 1 full of spirit and vitality wordnet
- 1 In a lively and vigorous way; sprightlily.
Etymology
From spright + -ly (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘behaving like, having the nature of’). Spright is an obsolete variant of sprite (“a shade, spirit; elf, fairy, goblin; apparition, ghost”), from Middle English sprit (“principle of life; soul, especially at the point of death; immaterial being (angel, demon, apparition, ghost, etc.); divine inspiration; Holy Spirit; the mind, intellect, reason; mental faculties, senses; power of prophecy; character, disposition; courage, resolution; mood, state of mind; human will; breath; (alchemy) volatile substance”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman esprite, esprit and Middle French esprit, variants of Anglo-Norman, Middle French, Old French espirit, esperit (“spirit”), from Latin spīritus (“air; breath; breathing; ghost, spirit”), from spīrō (“to breathe; to breathe out, exhale”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow; to breathe”)) + -tus (“suffix forming verbal nouns from verbs”).
From spright + -ly (suffix forming adverbs from adjectives).; see further at etymology 1.
See also for "sprightly"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: sprightly