different between lowly vs demiss

English

Etymology

From low +? -ly; compare Middle English lowly.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?l??li/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?lo?li/
• Rhymes: -??li

Adjective

lowly (comparative lowlier, superlative lowliest)

1. Not high; not elevated in place; low.
2. Low in rank or social importance.
3. Not lofty or sublime; humble.
   • 2010, David Dondero, Just a Baby in Your Momma's Eyes

     Where our apt used to be they built a fancy condominium high-rise.
     Which at a lowly income none of us could ever really quite afford.
4. Having a low esteem of one's own worth; humble; meek; free from pride.
   • 1769, Bible (King James Version), Matthew xi. 29

     Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.

Derived terms

• lowliness

Translations

Adverb

lowly (comparative more lowly, superlative most lowly)

1. In a low manner; humbly; meekly; modestly.
2. In a low condition; meanly.
3. At low pitch or volume.

   He muttered lowly.

Translations

Anagrams

• wolly

Middle English

Adverb

lowly

1. in a low manner; humbly; meekly; modestly

   • And there was none of these other knyghtes but they redde in bookes and holpe for to synge Masse, and range bellys, and dyd lowly al maner of servyce.

English

Alternative forms

• demisse (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin d?missus, past participle of d?mitt? (“demit”).

Adjective

demiss (comparative more demiss, superlative most demiss)

1. (archaic) Humble, lowly; abject.
   • 1595, Barnabe Barnes, A Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnets, London: John Windet, Sonnet 31,^[1]

     Oh that I had whole westerne windes of breath,

     My voice and tongue should not bee so remisse:

     My notes should not bee so rare and demisse:

   • 1660, Samuel Clarke, The Lives of Two and Twenty English Divines, London: Thomas Underhill and John Rothwell, “The Life and Death of Master William Bradshaw,” pp. 45-46,^[2]

     […] Master Bradshaw was not a man of much out side, nor forward to put out himself, of a very bashfull and demiss, but not fawning deportment […]

Anagrams

• Deisms, deisms, dismes, missed