English
slowly
Slowly comes from Middle English slowly, from Old English slāwlīċe ‘slowly’, from slāw ‘slow, lazy’ + -līċe, from Proto-Germanic *slaiwaz ‘blunt, dull’.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slaiwaz1‘blunt’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*slaiw1reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150slāw2‘lazy’
- Old Englishc. 450–1150slāwlīċe3‘slowly’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500slowly3
- Englishearliest quotation 1918slowly3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Old English slaw
- 2 Wiktionary, Old English slawlice
- 3 Wiktionary, English slowly
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1918, William Babington Maxwell, Indianapolis: “Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slaiwazWiktionary, Old English slaw‘blunt’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*slaiwWiktionary, Old English slawreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150slāwWiktionary, Old English slawlice‘lazy’
- Old Englishc. 450–1150slāwlīċeWiktionary, English slowly‘slowly’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500slowlyWiktionary, English slowly
- Englishearliest quotation 1918slowlyWiktionary, English slowly. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1918, William Babington Maxwell, Indianapolis: “Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing…”
Formed from slow + -ly
Proto-Germanic *slaiwaz ‘blunt’
Proto-West Germanic *slaiw
Old English slāw ‘lazy’
Middle English slaw
English slow
Every English word from Proto-Germanic *slaiwaz
Today it means
adv At a slow pace.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “slowly”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Old English slaw, Old English slawlice. 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 / Proto-Germanic *slaiwaz / slowly