chary
/ˈt͡ʃɛəɹi/ adjective, adverb
Forms charier chariest
- adjective Careful, cautious, shy, wary.
- adjective Excessively particular or fussy about details; fastidious.
- adjective Not disposed to give freely; not lavish; frugal, sparing.
- adjective (obsolete) Cared for, regarded as precious; cherished.
- adverb Synonym of charily: carefully, cautiously, warily.
Synonyms
alert attentive careful cautelous cautious canny circumspect conservative deliberate discreet guarded heedful heedy hesitant meticulous mindful prudent reckful safe sensible cagey cagy
Antonyms
unchary careless cursory derelict heedless irregardless irrespective lash lax incautious neglectful negligent
Etymology
From Middle English chari, charre, charri, chary, Early Middle English cearig, chariȝ (“concerned with, diligent; sad, sorrowful; of a person: cherished, loved”), from Old English ċeariġ (“careful; pensive; chary, wary; anxious, sad, sorrowful; dire, grievous”), from Proto-West Germanic *karag (“anxious; sad”), from Proto-Germanic *karō + *-gaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeh₂r- (“exclamation; voice”) + *-kos (suffix forming adjectives with the meaning ‘pertaining to; typical of’)); analysable as care + -y.
The English word is cognate with Danish karrig (“miserly, stingy”), Dutch karig (“austere, scant, sparing”), Norwegian karrig (“barren; meagre; poor”), Old High German charag, karag (“sparing”) (modern German karg (“barren; meagre, poor”)), Old Saxon carag, karag, Swedish karg (“austere; barren; hungry; needy, poor”). See further at care.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [AS. cearig careful, fr. cearu care. See Care.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “chary”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details