seemly

English

Etymology

From Middle English semely, semelich, semelike, from Old Norse sœmiligr (“seemly”), equivalent to seem +‎ -ly. Cognate with Icelandic sæmilegur (“seemly, passable”), Danish sømmelig (“seemly”).

Adjective

seemly (comparative seemlier, superlative seemliest)

1. (of behavior) Appropriate; suited to the occasion or purpose; becoming.

   His behavior was seemly, as befits a gentleman.

   • Shakespeare

     I am a woman, lacking wit / To make a seemly answer to such persons.

   • Hooker

     Suspense of judgment and exercise of charity were safer and seemlier for Christian men than the hot pursuit of these controversies.

Synonyms

• apposite

Antonyms

• unseemly

Derived terms

• seemlihead
• seemlily
• seemliness

Translations

appropriate

• Armenian: պատշաճ (hy) (patšač)
• German: schicklich, anständig (de), gesittet (de), passend (de), vernünftig (de), korrekt (de), angebracht (de), angemessen (de)

• Spanish: ubicado (es), decente (es), adecuado (es)
• Swedish: passande (sv)

Adverb

seemly (comparative more seemly, superlative most seemly)

1. Appropriately, fittingly.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:

     The great earthes wombe they open to the sky, / And with sad Cypresse seemely it embraue [...].