felly

From Middle English fely, felow, felowe, felwe, felȝe, from Old English felġe, dative of felg, from Proto-Germanic *felgō (compare Saterland Frisian feelge, Dutch velg, German Felge), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥ǵʰ- (compare Polish płoza (“sliding iron”), Old Church Slavonic пльзати (plĭzati, “to creep, crawl”)).

• felloe
• fellick, felk (dialectal)

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛli/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fel‧ly

felly (plural fellies)

1. The rim of a wooden wheel, supported by the spokes.
2. Any of the several curved segments that constitute the rim.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], lines 426-430:

     all you Gods, / In generall Synod take away her power: / Breake all the Spokes and Fallies from her wheele […]

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     The felly harshed against the curbstone: stopped.

From Middle English felly, felli, fellich, equivalent to fell +‎ -ly.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛl.li/, /ˈfɛli/

felly (comparative more felly, superlative most felly)

1. (now rare) Fiercely, harshly.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi:

     Ioues dreaded thunder light / Does scorch not halfe so sore, nor damned ghoste / In flaming Phlegeton does not so felly roste.

Contraction of the phrase hafal hyn, lit. "equal this", via a series of sound changes hafal hyn > (h)efel hyn > (e)fell hyn > (e)felly(n), (y)felly(n) > felly. Cognate with Middle Breton euelhenn.

• (North Wales, standard, colloquial) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛɬɨ̞/
  • (North Wales, colloquial) IPA^(key): /ɬɨ̞/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛɬi/

felly

1. so, thus

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “felly”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies