[OE. fæderlic, f. fæder, FATHER + -lic: see -LY1.]
† 1. Of or pertaining to a (natural or spiritual) father; paternal. Obs.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, IV. i. 75.
| By that fatherly and kindly power, | |
| That you haue in her, bid her answer truly. |
1626. L. Owen, Spec. Jesuit. (1629), 33. Of his owne meere fatherly and Apostaticall motion.
a. 1633. Lennard, trans. Charron’s Wisd., I. xlvii. § 3 (1670), 174. Now this fatherly power (as ouer-sharpe and dangerous) is almost of it self lost and abolished.
† b. Of or pertaining to ancestors; ancestral. Hence also, Venerable. Obs.
a. 1000. Elene, 431 (Gr.). Þy læs … þa fæderlican lare [sien] forlæten.
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 48. Poetrie is of all humane learning the most auncient, and of most fatherly antiquitie, as from whence other learnings haue taken theyr beginnings; sith it is so vniuersall, that no learned Nation dooth despise it, nor no barbarous Nation is without it.
1634. Canne, Necess. Separ. (1849), 154. The Nonconformists have ofttimes desired that all their ecclesiastical decrees, constitutions, provincial and synodal statutes, fatherly customs, &c., might utterly be abandoned, and as froth and filth be spued out of the commonwealth.
2. Resembling a father; † a. In age, hence, venerable (obs.). b. In character or demeanour.
1577. Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 19. That place is more fitte for such olde fatherly men as you are, than for such yong men as I am.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 71. The bishops are graue, ancient, and fatherlie men.
1777. Mad. D’Arblay, Early Diary (1889), II. 277. How friendly, and fatherly, sweet soul!
1832. L. Hunt, Sir R. Esher (1850), 89. A gentleman … who … having no children is so fatherly as to take care of the children of others.
1867. O. W. Holmes, Guardian Angel, iv. (1891), 47. He had been fatherly with Susan Posey.
3. Of the feelings and conduct: Such as is proper in or from a father; natural to a father; paternal.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., lii. 232 (Harl. MS.). Crist is our fader, For he hathe to vs a fadirlye affeccion, and not a modirly.
1482. Monk of Evesham (Arb.), 28. Y … thankid him that he wolde white safe to chaste me … in a fadyrly chastment.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 198. The father of heuen shewed hymselfe in a fatherly voyce, sayenge.
1533. Gau, Richt Vay (1888), 86. Lat vsz knaw thy faderlie lwiff.
1623. Jas. I., in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 283. III. 141. With my fatherlie blessing.
1649. Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., III. iv. 264. Humbly to submit yourselfe to his fatherly directions in that course which shall be found best and safest for your soule.
1776. Foote, Bankrupt, II. Wks. 1799, II. 122. Perhaps it was a fatherly weakness, I could not help giving credit to all that she said.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, X. xiii.
| ’Twas fear, | |
| Fatherly fear and love. |
1828. D’Israeli, Chas. I., I. ii. 16. The fatherly admonition was received in silence.
