sprightly
/ˈspɹaɪtli/ adjective, adverb
Forms sprightlier sprightliest sprightlie spritely
- adjective Animated, gay, or vivacious; lively, spirited.
- adjective Of a person: full of life and vigour, especially with a light and springy step.
- adjective Especially of an older person: energetic and in good health; spry.
- adjective (obsolete, rare) Of or relating to a sprite; ghostly, spectral.
- adverb In a lively and vigorous way; sprightlily.
Synonyms
energetic high-spirited spright active dynamic mettlesome vivacious
Antonyms
Etymology
From spright + -ly (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘behaving like, having the nature of’). Spright is an obsolete variant of sprite (“a shade, spirit; elf, fairy, goblin; apparition, ghost”), from Middle English sprit (“principle of life; soul, especially at the point of death; immaterial being (angel, demon, apparition, ghost, etc.); divine inspiration; Holy Spirit; the mind, intellect, reason; mental faculties, senses; power of prophecy; character, disposition; courage, resolution; mood, state of mind; human will; breath; (alchemy) volatile substance”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman esprite, esprit and Middle French esprit, variants of Anglo-Norman, Middle French, Old French espirit, esperit (“spirit”), from Latin spīritus (“air; breath; breathing; ghost, spirit”), from spīrō (“to breathe; to breathe out, exhale”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow; to breathe”)) + -tus (“suffix forming verbal nouns from verbs”).
From spright + -ly (suffix forming adverbs from adjectives).; see further at etymology 1.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Sprightlike, or spiritlike; lively; brisk; animated; vigorous; airy; gay; as, a sprightly youth; a sprightly air; a sprightly dance.
Etymology [See Sprite.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sprightly”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details