FERLY noun (fer-lee)

noun
1. something unusual, strange, or causing wonder or terror.
2. astonishment; wonder.

adjective
1. unexpected; strange; unusual.


Quotes

As on a May morning, on Malvern hills, / Me befell a ferly of fairy, methought.
--*William Langland (c1330–c1400),*The Vision of Piers Plowman, 1360–99


Many a ferly fares to the fair-eyed ...
--*William Morris,*Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair, 1895



Origin

Nowadays ferly is used only in Scottish English as a noun meaning “a wonder, a marvel,” and a verb “to wonder.” The Old English source is the adjective fǣrlīc “sudden,” a derivative of the noun fǣr “fear” (akin to German Gefahr “danger” and gefährlich “dangerous”).