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Hanuman_2000 Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

Meaning

Sir,

Adverbs of manner are mostly formed from adjectives adding "ly"(a corruption of Like).

I am not able to understand the maening of the phrase in the bracket "a corruption of like".

Would you please explain to me?

Thanks.
  

Top answer

The claim here is that in older forms of English, the words used to be slightly different. For example, "slowly" used to be "slowlike", "fearfully" used to be "fearfullike", "foolishly" used to be "foolishlike". As time went on, speakers dropped the final "ke" of "like", leaving "ke".

— CalifJim

  • The claim here is that in older forms of English, the words used to be slightly different.
  • For example, "slowly" used to be "slowlike", "fearfully" used to be "fearfullike", "foolishly" used to be "foolishlike".
  • As time went on, speakers dropped the final "ke" of "like", leaving "ke".
  • This "corrupted" the ending "like".
  • The resulting "slowli", "fearfulli", and "foolishli", and so on, were then spelled with a final "y" instead of "i" to yield "slowly", "fearfully" and "foolishly".
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1 Answers
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The claim here is that in older forms of English, the words used to be slightly different.
For example, "slowly" used to be "slowlike", "fearfully" used to be "fearfullike", "foolishly" used to be "foolishlike". As time went on, speakers dropped the final "ke" of "like", leaving "ke". This "corrupted" the ending "like". The resulting "slowli", "fearfulli", and "foolishli", and so on, were
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