burly

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English borlich, also burli and burlich,^[2][3][4][5] probably inherited from Old English *borlic (“excellent”), an unrecorded adjective beside the adverb borlīce (“excellently, eminently”).^{[6][2][4][7][8]} The spelling burly was at first only northern.^[3][4] The word is usually compared with Old High German burlīh (“lofty, exalted, stately”), from the root of burjan (“to raise, lift”);^{[3][5][9][10]} Klein, Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”), the root of bear (to carry).^[5][9][6][4] The OED, which calls the origin uncertain, notes that no likely Old English or Old Norse source for the first element has been found, and that the Middle English forms point to a long vowel in the Old English form.^[3] Etymonline, Hoad, Skeat, Ayto and the Oxford Dictionary of English instead explain it as "bower-like", fit for a lady's chamber, from *būrlic, a derivative of bower;^{[11][12][13][14][15]} the Middle English Dictionary thinks the spellings with u arose by association with bour (“bower”).^[2] Johnson reported Skinner's guess that it meant "boorlike".^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of persons, excellent, noble, handsome: perhaps before 1300, in the poem Maximian.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to about 1300,^[11] and Barnhart finds borlich before 1250.^[4] The OED's first record, a borli bachelere of Solomon in the Cursor Mundi (before 1400), has the sense stately, of imposing presence.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the word "has come down in the world": it first meant excellent, noble or stately,^[14][11] and was a conventional epithet of praise in Middle English verse.^[12][2] The idea of an imposing presence passed into that of bulk: from about 1400, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, it meant stout and massively built;^[3][11][14] the older sense "stately" lasted until the 17th century.^[3][17] In Middle English the word was also used of things,^[11][3] and between 1651 and 1805 of thick, heavy cloth or wool.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as great of stature or bulky.^[16] From 1605 it could also mean domineering, bluff or forthright, a sense now archaic.^[3][9] In Scots and northern dialect it meant thick, clumsy or rough.^[18] In American slang a burly was an able-bodied, aggressive tramp, from 1915.^[19][9]

Timeline

• before 1300 – of persons, excellent, noble, handsome.^[2]
• before 1400 – stately, dignified, of imposing presence (obsolete by 1664).^[3]
• c. 1400 – stout, sturdy, massively built.^[3][11]
• c. 1540 – adverb, sturdily, stoutly.^[3][2]
• 1605 – domineering; bluff, forthright.^[3]
• 1651 – of cloth or wool, thick, heavy (obsolete by 1805).^[3]
• 1915 – noun, in American slang, an able-bodied, aggressive tramp.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Big and strongly built; stout, sturdy or brawny: Two burly porters carried the trunk upstairs.^[9][20][3]
2. Frank and direct in manner; bluff, rough-and-ready.^[9][3]
3. (obsolete, 1400–1664) Stately, dignified, of noble presence.^[3][17][2]

Noun

1. (slang) A person of burly build, especially a tramp.^[9][19]

Word family

• burlily
• burliness
• unburly

Related words

• bear
• bower
• hurly-burly

Usage notes

The OED and the English Dialect Dictionary record a separate noun burly, a tumult or crowd, from 1835, which is short for hurly-burly.^[3][18]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
18. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
19. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
20. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins