Ferlier

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing something more astonishing or remarkable, in the old Scots sense of inspiring wonder
2. Used in Scots to mean more marvellous, strange, or worthy of amazement than something else
3. An archaic Scots comparative meaning more wonderful or more startling than another thing

Etymology: Once a word for alarm, "ferly" moved from fright to wonder. Its Old English ancestor, "fǣrlīc," described something sudden and dreadful, formed from "fær," a word for sudden danger or calamity that is likely also the source of modern "fear." Over the Middle Ages the sense softened from terror at a sudden event to amazement at something extraordinary. In northern English and Scots, "ferly" came to mean a marvel or wonder. "Ferlier" is the comparative of that adjective, meaning more astonishing or more marvellous than something else. It appears in older northern English and Scots writing, where the adjective kept its sense of wonder while the original dread had faded.