seely
無邪気な
解説 Definition
古い英語の形容詞で、「幸せな」「無邪気な」「単純な」という意味。中世の文学や歴史的なテキストでのみ見られる廃れた表現。
An archaic adjective meaning innocent, simple, naive, blessed, or deserving of pity, depending on the historical context. In medieval-style descriptions of a knight, maiden, or youth, it often suggests harmless purity and lack of worldly knowledge.
覚え方のコツ Memory Tip
seely は古英語で「幸せな・祝福された」を表す語から、「罪のない、無邪気な、か弱い」へ意味が移った古風な形容詞。現代の silly と同根だが、例文の seely knight や seely maiden は「愚かな」より「世間知らずで純真な」と捉える。
Connect seely with modern silly, but remember that their meanings separated over time. Seely began in a favorable area of meaning—happy or blessed—and later described someone innocent, simple, defenseless, or pitiable. Thus, a seely maiden in an old text is not necessarily foolish; she may be pure-hearted and unaware of worldly wickedness. Collocations such as seely knight, seely youth, and seely creature signal an archaic literary register. In present-day prose, use innocent, naive, or helpless unless deliberately creating a historical tone.
例文
In medieval literature, the seely knight was often portrayed as innocent and virtuous.
中世の文学では、無邪気で清廉な騎士が描かれることが多かった。
The seely maiden knew nothing of the world's wickedness.
その無邪気な乙女は世の悪意について何も知らなかった。
He was but a seely youth, naive and pure-hearted.
彼はただの無邪気な若者で、素朴で純粋な心を持っていた。
seely の類義語・関連語
派生語
紛らわしい語
seely の語源・成り立ち Etymology
seely は古英語 gesælig／sǣlig「幸せな、祝福された」に由来する古風な形容詞です。もとは「幸福な」が、のちに「罪がない」「無邪気な」「か弱い」へ意味をずらし、現代の silly と同根だと知ると意味変化が見えやすい語です。関連語は silly。
Seely descends from Old English gesǣlig or sǣlig, meaning “happy,” “fortunate,” or “blessed.” During Middle English, related forms developed senses such as innocent, simple, pitiable, and weak. The same historical word ultimately produced modern silly, whose dominant meaning shifted further toward “foolish” or “lacking good sense.” Seely preserves older stages of that semantic development and now appears chiefly in historical, dialectal, or deliberately archaic writing.
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