spakly

adv.

WA spacly

'readily, willingly, quickly'

(Modern English )

Etymology

Formed on the ME adj. < the ON adj. represented by OIcel spakr 'gentle, wise' (see spakest (adj.) and spak (adv.)); cp. OIcel spakliga (adv.) 'peaceably, wisely'. This root does not occur elsewhere in Gmc, but a connection with the same Indo-European base as Croatian paziti 'to give heed to' is often suggested.

PGmc Ancestor


 

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

spakr (adj.) 'gentle, wise', cp. spakliga (adv.) 'peaceably, wisely'
(ONP spakr (adj.), cp. spakliga (adv.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far spakur, Icel spakur, Norw spak, ODan spak, Dan spag, OSw skaper, Sw spak; cp. MSw spaklika, Sw spakliga

OE Cognate

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

B1

Attestation

First cited by MED and OED3 from c1325 In a fryht (Hrl 2253); most instances are from alliterative poetry. The adj. occurs earlier, from a1225(?a1200) Trin.Hom. (Trin-C B.14.52) in texts and possibly from 1197 in the surname <Spakeman> and survives in N dial of MnE (EDD, OED).

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Cl 755; Pat 338; Erk 335; WA 786, 2975

Bibliography

MED spaklī (adv.) , OED3 spackly (adv.) , HTOED , EDD spack (adj. and sb.), Bj. 220, de Vries spakr, Mag. spakur