adv.
WA mekly
‘humbly, briskly; compassionately, graciously’
(Modern English meekly)Formed on the adj. ME meke, always derived from ON, cp. OIcel mjúkr ‘soft, agile; meek, mild’ (and mjúkliga adv.). The PGmc root *meuk- is found in this form only in Scandinavia, but there are related forms elsewhere in Gmc on the Ablaut variant *mūk-, viz. Go mūka-mōdei ‘meekness’ and Du meuk, LG muck, Ger dial. (Swiss) mauch ‘soft’; these are usually further related to OIcel myki ‘dung’ (etc.), and hence to a PIE root *mVg- or *mVk-.
PGmc Ancestor
*meuk-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
mjúkr ‘soft, agile; meek, mild’, cp. mjúkliga 'softly, tenderly'
(ONP mjúkr (adj.), cp. mjúkliga (adv.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far mjúkr, Icel mjúkr, Norw mjuk, Dan myg, Sw mjuk
OE Cognate
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
B1
Common and widespread from early ME.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 756, Cl 783; WA 816, 1686, 1947 etc.
Usually glossed 'mekely' at Cl 783, but Anderson (783n) argues that the meaning is closer to another sense attested for the word in Old Norse 'nimbly, briskly'.