different between ghastly vs gashly

English

Etymology

From a conflation of a derivation of Old English g?stan (“to torment, frighten”) with the suffix -lic, and ghostly (which was also spelt "gastlich" in Middle English). Equivalent to ghast/gast + -ly. Spelling with 'gh' developed 16th century due to the conflation.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /????s(t).li/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??æs(t).li/

Adjective

ghastly (comparative ghastlier, superlative ghastliest)

1. Like a ghost in appearance; death-like; pale; pallid; dismal.
   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

     Each turned his face with a ghastly pang.
2. Horrifyingly shocking.
3. Extremely bad.

Synonyms

• (sickly pale): See also Thesaurus:pallid
• (horrifyingly shocking): lurid

Translations

Adverb

ghastly (not comparable)

1. In a ghastly manner.
   • 1921, William Dudley Pelley, The Fog: A Novel, page 196:

     Johnathan's lips moved ghastly before his voice would come. "So I'm crazy, am I? And if I choose to murder you, what would you do?"

English

Etymology

Perhaps a dialectal alteration of ghastly, by association with gash.

Adjective

gashly (comparative more gashly, superlative most gashly)

1. Ghastly, horrible. [from 17th c.]
   • 1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson 1986, p. 243:

     I have a great mind to break all your gashly images about the head of your fine Miss, in her silks and satins;’—mistaking his lay-figure for a living model of the highest sort.

   • 1884, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter IX:

     "It's a dead man. Yes, indeedy; naked, too. He's ben shot in de back. I reck'n he's ben dead two er three days. Come in, Huck, but doan' look at his face--it's too gashly."