knightly meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

knightly

adj

/ˈnaɪtli/

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

Of or pertaining to a knight or knights.

Where noyse of armes, or vew of martiall guize / Might not reuiue desire of knightly exercize.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25:

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

knightly combat

Derived terms: knightlihood, knightlily, knightliness, unknightly

knightly

adv

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

In the manner of a knight; chivalrously.

Mar. In Gods name, and the Kings, say who yͧ [thou] art. And why thou com'st thus knightly clad in Armes?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:
Who backs a horse, or bears a hawk, or wears A sword like him! Whose plume nods knightlier?1822, Lord Byron, Werner, act IV, scene i

1 more example

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