specialli

Middle English

Alternative forms

• specialle, specially, speciali, spessialli, specialeke, speceali; spacialliche (Kent)

Etymology

special +‎ -ly.

Adverb

specialli

1. specially, especially
   • c. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, lines 15–16:

     And specially from every shires ende / Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,

     And specially from every shire's end / Of England they to Canterbury went,

   • 1407, The Testimony of William Thorpe, pages 40–41:

     And with alle these men I was ofte homli and I comownede with hem long tyme and fele, and so bifore alle othir men I chees wilfulli to be enformed bi hem and of hem, and speciali of Wiclef himsilf, as of the moost vertuous and goodlich wise man that I herde of owhere either knew. And herfore of Wicleef speciali and of these men I toke the lore whiche I haue taughte and purpose to lyue aftir, if God wole, to my lyues ende.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• English: specially
• Scots: specialy, specially

References

• “speciā̆llī, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.