Etymology
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westerly (adv.)

late 15c., "in a westerly direction; facing toward the west," from Middle English wester (adj.) "western" (mid-14c.), from Old English westra, variant of westerne (see western) + -ly (2). As an adjective, "coming from the west," 1570s. Contradictory sense of "going to the west" attested by 1630s.

Entries linking to westerly

western (adj.)
"toward or of the west," late Old English westerne "western, westerly, coming from the west," from west + -erne, suffix denoting direction. The noun meaning "book or movie about the Old West" is first attested 1909. Westerner is from 1837 as "person from the U.S. West," 1880 as "Euro-American," as opposed to Oriental.
-ly (2)

common adverbial suffix, forming from adjectives adverbs signifying "in a manner denoted by" the adjective, Middle English, from Old English -lice, from Proto-Germanic *-liko- (cognates: Old Frisian -like, Old Saxon -liko, Dutch -lijk, Old High German -licho, German -lich, Old Norse -liga, Gothic -leiko); see -ly (1). Cognate with lich, and identical with like (adj.).

Weekley notes as "curious" that Germanic uses a word essentially meaning "body" for the adverbial formation, while Romanic uses one meaning "mind" (as in French constamment from Latin constanti mente). The modern English form emerged in late Middle English, probably from influence of Old Norse -liga.

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Definitions of westerly
1
westerly (adv.)
toward the west; "we began to steer away westerly"- Daniel Defoe;
westerly (adv.)
from the west;
the wind blew westerly
2
westerly (adj.)
of wind; from the west;
Synonyms: western
westerly (adj.)
moving toward the west;
Synonyms: westbound / westward
3
westerly (n.)
the winds from the west that occur in the temperate zones of the Earth;
Synonyms: prevailing westerly
From wordnet.princeton.edu

Dictionary entries near westerly

west

West Bank

West Indies

wester

westerlies

westerly

western

westernization

westernize

westernmost

Westphalia

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