Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Wonderful; admirable; rare.
  • noun A wonder; marvel.
  • Wonderfully.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Northern England, Scotland Rare; wonderful; admirable.
  • adverb Northern England, Scotland Wonderfully.
  • noun Northern England, Scotland A marvel; wonder; something wonderful or rare.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English selli, sellich, from Old English sellīc, seldlīc ("rare, strange, wondrous, extraordinary, wonderful; having unusually good qualities, excellent, admirable; select, better, superior, choice"), equivalent to seld +‎ -ly. Cognate with Scots selly, silly ("approved, good, worthy"), Old Saxon seldlīk ("rare, wonderful"), Gothic  (sildaleiks, "wonderful").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word selly.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.