Etymograph

English

shrewly

Shrewly comes from Middle English shreuli.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500shreuli1
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1897shrewly1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English shrewly
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Washington Irving, Works: Life of George Washington: “The Society have, it seems, invented a cunning machine,…”.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500shreuliWiktionary, English shrewly
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1897shrewlyWiktionary, English shrewly. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Washington Irving, Works: Life of George Washington: “The Society have, it seems, invented a cunning machine,…”

Formed from shrew + -ly

Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ‘to cut’

Proto-Germanic *skrawwaz ‘thin’

Old English sċrēawa

Middle English schrewe ‘a scoundrel or villain’

English shrew

Every English word from Middle English shreuli

Today it means

adv In a shrewish manner, shrewdly, sharply.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “shrewly”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Middle English shreuli / shrewly

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