silvery

Etymology

It is formed from English silver + -y,^[2][3][4][5] first as inherited from Middle English silverī.^[6][3] The OED compares Dutch zilverig and German silberig.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Like silver, silver-coloured: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew, where the planet Jupiter is "in colour siluery, white, and briȝht".^[6] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 14th century,^[3][5] but the OED's first quotation is from Cotgrave's dictionary of 1611, and Dictionary.com gives 1590–1600.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first described colour and lustre, and Trevisa used it to translate Latin argenteus.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as "besprinkled with silver".^[8] The sense of a clear, gentle ringing sound is dated by the Shorter Oxford to the early 17th century,^[4] but the OED has it only from Byron, of a voice in 1821 and of a bell in 1824.^[2] In the 19th century it was also used of silvery iron (1861), of plants such as silvery hair-grass (1859), and of rock containing silver (1870).^[2] A separate noun silvery, a disease called silver sickness, is recorded once, in Trevisa's Polychronicon before 1387.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1398 – like silver in colour.^[6]
• 1611 – having the hue or lustre of silver.^[2]
• 1821 – of a voice, silver-toned.^[2]
• 1824 – having a clear, gentle ringing sound.^[2]
• 1870 – containing or producing silver.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having the colour or lustre of silver; of hair, white and shining: the silvery light of the moon on the lake.^{[9][10][4][5]}
2. Having a clear, soft, ringing sound; melodious: a silvery laugh.^{[9][10][5][4]}
3. Containing silver or coated with it.^[9][10][5]

Word family

• silveriness

Related words

• silver

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d 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)
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins