sprightly
/ˈspɹaɪtli/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.49 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
In a lively and vigorous way; sprightlily.
Example Sentences
- "Next vnto lumpish Saturn, sprightlie Iove / Moves in his orbe."
- "And ſhou’d Apollo novv deſcend and vvrite, / In Vertue’s Praiſe ’tvvou’d never paſs for Wit. / The Bookſeller perhaps vvou’d ſay, / ’Tvvas vvell: / But ’Tvvou’d not hit the Times, ’Tvvou’d never Sell: / Unleſs a Spice of Levvdneſs cou’d appear, / The ſprightly part vvou’d ſtill be vvanting there. / […] / ’Tis Love and Honour muſt enrich our Verſe, / The Modern Terms, our VVhoring to rehearſe. / The ſprightly part attends the God of VVine, / The Drunken Stile muſt blaze in every Line."
- "[B]y the Path-way green, / A ſprightlie Troupe ſtill onward heedleſſe ſped, / In Chace of Butterflies alert and keen; / Honours, and Wealth, and Powre, their Butterflies I ween."
- "The Bard now tries a ſprightlier ſound, / When all the feather'd race around / Perceive the varied ſtrains; / The ſoaring lark the note purſues; / The timorous dove around him cooes, / And Philomel complains."
- "Shall our example ſloth create, / And make our Sons degenerate? / Our ſprightly youth uſeleſs in War become, / And ſleep in peace and ſlavery at home."
- "This youth was ance a sprightlie boy / As ever lived in Linne."
Etymology
From spright + -ly (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘behaving like, having the nature of’). Spright is an obsolete variant of sprite (“a shade, spirit; elf, fairy, goblin; apparition, ghost”), from Middle English sprit (“principle of life; soul, especially at the point of death; immaterial being (angel, demon, apparition, ghost, etc.); divine inspiration; Holy Spirit; the mind, intellect, reason; mental faculties, senses; power of prophecy; character, disposition; courage, resolution; mood, state of mind; human will; breath; (alchemy) volatile substance”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman esprite, esprit and Middle French esprit, variants of Anglo-Norman, Middle French, Old French espirit, esperit (“spirit”), from Latin spīritus (“air; breath; breathing; ghost, spirit”), from spīrō (“to breathe; to breathe out, exhale”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow; to breathe”)) + -tus (“suffix forming verbal nouns from verbs”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈspɹaɪtli/
- British English: /ˈspɹaɪtli/