knightly

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnaɪtli/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪtli
• Homophone: nightly

Etymology 1

From Middle English knyghtly, knightlich; equivalent to knight +‎ -ly (adjectival suffix). Cognate with Old English cnihtlīċ (“boyish”), Dutch knechtelijk (“servile”), German knechtlich (“menial”).

Adjective

knightly (comparative knightlier, superlative knightliest)

1. Of or pertaining to a knight or knights.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25:

     Where noyse of armes, or vew of martiall guize / Might not reuiue desire of knightly exercize.

2. Befitting a knight; formally courteous (as a knight); chivalrous, gallant and courtly.

   knightly combat

Derived terms

• knightliness

Translations

formally courteous (as a knight); chivalrous, gallant and courtly

• Armenian: ասպետական (hy) (aspetakan)
• Georgian: რაინდული (rainduli), სარაინდო (saraindo)
• German: ritterlich (de)
• Irish: ridiriúil
• Middle English: knyghtly
• Scottish Gaelic: ridireach
• Spanish: caballeresco (es), caballeroso (es)

Etymology 2

From Middle English knyghtly; equivalent to knight +‎ -ly (adverbial suffix).

Adverb

knightly (comparative knightlier, superlative knightliest)

1. In the manner of a knight; chivalrously.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 25:

     Mar. In Gods name, and the Kings, say who yͧ [thou] art.
     And why thou com'st thus knightly clad in Armes?

   • 1822, Lord Byron, Werner, act IV, scene i:

     Who backs a horse, or bears a hawk, or wears
     A sword like him! Whose plume nods knightlier?

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Guinevere”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 227:

     He, reverencing king's blood in a bad man,
     Made such excuses as he might, and these
     Full knightly without scorn; for in those days
     No knight of Arthur's noblest dealt in scorn.

References

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Knightly, adv.”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume V (H–K), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 734.