feebly

English

Etymology

From Middle English febly; equivalent to feeble +‎ -ly, euphonically blending -le and -ly due to difficulty of pronouncing -blely. Compare nimbly, nobly, and Latinate -ably and -ibly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfiːbli/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: feeb‧ly

Adverb

feebly (comparative more feebly, superlative most feebly)

1. In a feeble manner.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 95:

     Feebly ſhe ſhriekt, but ſo feebly indeed / That Britomart heard not the ſhrilling ſound.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 215:

     The hurt nigger moaned feebly somewhere nearby, and then fetched a deep sigh that made me mend my pace away from there.

References

• “feebly”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• bee fly