downright
/ˈdaʊnɹaɪt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.38 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
adv
Immediately at that place and time; without delay; altogether, at once, then and there.
Obsolete
adj
Of a person or their behaviour: direct, plain, straightforward; also, of speech: direct and unambiguous; blunt, to the point.
Example Sentences
- "He wasn’t just cool to me, he was downright rude."
- "VVe vvere deſcried, theyle mock vs novv dounright."
- "VVhat then are thoſe monſtrous Extravagancies in your deportment to all perſons of vvhat quality ſoever? […] VVhich bold and impudent cuſtome, unleſs you vvere dovvn-right mad, you could never have taken up of your ſelves. VVherefore certainly ſome very vvaggiſh Maſter of the Ceremonies has taught you this ill manners, like him that inſtructed the Sheriff to keep on his Hat vvhen he accoſted the King."
- "Familiar! Madam, in Troth he's dovvn-right rude."
- "If my friend had not given me the hint, damn me if I ſhou'd not think her dovvn right angry."
- "The pure Drummond product, the four-cylinder 4-6-0 as built for the London & South Western, was a less successful design, and some of the specimens were downright bad."
Etymology
The adverb is derived from Middle English dounright, dounriȝt (“right down, straight down; face down; vertically; used for emphasis: outright, downright”), and then either: * possibly an aphetic form of adounright (“straight down; directly, immediately (?)”), from adoun (“downward”, adverb) (from Old English adūn, adūne (“down, downward”, adverb), ultimately from dūn (“hill, mountain”), from Proto-West Germanic *dūnā, *dūnu (“hill; sand dune”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“haze, mist; smoke”)) + right (“direct; straight; etc.”, adjective) (from Old English riht (“straight; etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten”)); or * from doun (“down, downward; etc.”, adverb) (from Old English dūne (“down”), ultimately from dūn (“hill, mountain”): see above) + right. By surface analysis, down (adverb) + right (adjective). The adjective and noun are derived from the adverb. Noun sense 1 (“low grade of wool”) may be from the obsolete adjective sense 2.2 (“in its most basic form; ordinary”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *dʰewh₂-, dounright, adūn, *dūnā, riht, *h₃reǵ-