monthly

Etymology

It is formed from English month + -ly, with the adjective suffix for the adjective and the adverb suffix for the adverb.^[2][3][4][5] Old English had mōnaþlīc (“monthly; lunar”), also used as a noun for menstruation,^[6][2] but the OED thinks the Old English examples probably show no continuity with the later word,^[2] and Etymonline also takes the modern words as separate formations.^[3] The Old English adjective may be cognate with Old Frisian mōnathlik, Middle Dutch maendelijc, Old Saxon mānothlīk and Old High German mānōdlīh, the source of German monatlich;^[2][6] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Germanic *mēnōþlīkaz.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adverb, once a month, every month: 1463, in the Great Red Book of Bristol.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also dates the adverb to the 15th century,^[4] while Etymonline gives the 1530s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective, relating to a particular month or payable every month, is recorded from 1543,^[2][4] and of the menstrual cycle from 1568.^[2] Etymonline dates the adjective to the 1570s.^[3] The senses "done or happening once a month" (1587) and "lasting for a month" (1589) followed;^[2] the second now occurs only with the idea of recurrence.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave both "continuing a month" and "happening every month".^[7] The Shorter Oxford records monthly nurse, a nurse who looks after a mother in the first month after the birth.^[5] In 1611 the adverb was used, in Middleton and Dekker's Roaring Girl, of a madness thought to follow the phases of the moon.^[2] The noun use for menstrual periods, now colloquial, goes back to Old English in the OED,^[2][4] and a monthly, a magazine published once a month, is recorded from 1830,^[2] by 1833 in Etymonline.^[3]

Timeline

• 1463 – adverb, once a month, every month.^[2]
• 1543 – adjective, relating to a month; payable every month.^[2][4]
• 1568 – relating to the menstrual cycle.^[2]
• 1587 – done or happening once a month.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1640s.^[3]
• 1589 – lasting for a month.^[2] Etymonline gives the 1580s.^[3]
• 1611 – adverb, in the manner of a madness that follows the moon (obsolete).^[2]
• 1830 – noun, a magazine published once a month.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Happening, done, published or payable once a month: a monthly newsletter.^[8][4][2]
2. Lasting or valid for a month: a monthly bus pass.^[8][2]
3. Relating to a month, or reckoned by the month: the average monthly rainfall.^[4][2]

Adverb

1. Once a month; every month: The committee meets monthly.^[8][4][2]

Noun

1. A periodical or magazine published once a month.^[8][4][2]
2. (informal, often plural) A menstrual period.^[8][4][2]

Word family

• half-monthly
• bimonthly
• semimonthly
• trimonthly
• monthly meeting

Related words

• month
• moon
• menses

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins