different between sunly vs sully

English

Etymology

From Middle English sonnelych, sunnelich, from Old English sunl?? (“of the sun, solar”). Equivalent to sun +? -ly.

Adjective

sunly (comparative sunlier or more sunly, superlative sunliest or most sunly)

1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the Sun; solar.
   • 1874, Lew Wallace, The fair God:

     Aside he flung his sunly symbols. Like a falling star, from the Vale of Gods He dropp'd, like a falling star shot through the Shoreless space; like a golden morning reach'd The earth, —reach'd the lake.

   • 1907, Harper's magazine:

     "Nay, The sun is single, but her eyes are twain, — Twain firmaments that mock with heavenlier hue The heavens' less lordly and less gracious blue, And lit with sunlier sunlight through and through."

   • 2001, Carl M. Franklin, Carolyn Craig Franklin: Favorite Poems, Quotes and Hymns:

     She agreed with Mark Twain that it "is the peacefulest, restfulest, sunliest, balmiest, dreamiest haven of refuge [...] the surface of the earth can offer."

2. (by extension in contrast with moonly) Sane.
   • 1964, Norman Friedman, E. E. Cummings; the growth of a writer:

     [...] than to win less never than alive less bigger than the least begin less littler than forgive it is most sane and sunly and more it cannot die than all the sky which only is higher than the sky [...]

Adverb

sunly (comparative sunlier or more sunly, superlative sunliest or most sunly)

1. In a sunly manner.
   • 1863, James Wallis, David King, The British millennial harbinger:

     Hopes that beam the sunliest, Like the wavelet's silver crest, [...]

Related terms

• moonly

Anagrams

• unsly

English

Etymology

From Middle English sulen, sulien (“to become dirty; to defile, pollute, taint”), from Old English sylian (“to soil, pollute; to sully”), from Proto-Germanic *suliw?n?, *sulw?n?, *sulwijan? (“to make dirty; to sully”), from Proto-Indo-European *s?l- (“thick liquid, muck”), perhaps conflated partially with Old French souillier (“to soil”) (modern French souiller) from the same Germanic source. The word is cognate with Danish søle (“to sully”), Dutch zaluwen (“to sully”) (Middle Dutch saluwen (“to sully”)), German sühlen (“to sully”), Old Saxon sulian (“to sully”), Swedish söla (“to sully”). Also compare Middle English sulpen (“to defile, pollute”), Old English solian (“to soil, become defiled, make or become foul”), and see more at soil.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?s?li/
• Rhymes: -?li
• Hyphenation: sul?ly

Verb

sully (third-person singular simple present sullies, present participle sullying, simple past and past participle sullied)

1. (transitive) To soil or stain; to dirty.

   Synonym: (obsolete) sowl
2. (transitive) To corrupt or damage.
3. (intransitive, ergative) To become soiled or tarnished.

Alternative forms

• sullow

Coordinate terms

• (to corrupt or damage): besmirch, debase, stain, tarnish

Derived terms

• besully
• unsullied
• unsully

Translations

Noun

sully (plural sullies)

1. (rare, obsolete) A blemish.

References