eerie, eery, a.
(ˈiːrɪ)
Forms: 4 eri, hery, 4–6 ery, 6 erie, 9 eirie, -y (Anglo-Irish airy), 8– eery, -ie.
[ME. eri, ? var. of erȝ, argh; or ? f. that word + -y.
The word occurs in the northern (not in the midland) version of the Cursor Mundi. It has recently been often used in general literature, but is still regarded as properly Scotch.]
1. Fearful, timid. In mod. use, expressing the notion of a vague superstitious uneasiness.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 17685 (Gött.) Ioseph be noght eri. c 1375 ? Barbour S. Cosmas & D. 321, & scho..wes for hyme hery. 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. Prol. xii, With ery courage. 1513 ― æneis vii. iv. 91 He fled..and to his cave hym sped wyth ery spreyt. 1572 Sempill Ballates (1872) 159 We pure sall cry with erie hartis..To the, O God. a 1774 Fergusson Drink Ecl. Poems (1845) 50 They glower eery at a friend's disgrace. 1807–10 Tannahill Poems (1846) 98 The watch-dog's howling..makes the nightly wanderer eerie. 1876 Mrs. Whitney Sights & Ins. II. ii. 357 Do you feel eerie? 1878 H. M. Stanley Dark Cont. I. xiv. 353 This eerie feeling..might be causeless. |
2. Fear-inspiring; gloomy, strange, weird.
| 1792 Burns Wks. (1800) II. 403 Be thou a bogle by the eerie side of an auld thorn. 1795 Macneill Waes o' War in Poems (1801) 5 Night comes dark and eerie. 1828 J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. XXIII. 116 Hae ye walked..fra Bawhannan Lodge, in sic an eerie night. 1875 M. E. Braddon Strange World II. i. 10 The..sheep bell had an eerie sound. |
Hence ˈeerily adv., in an eerie manner; weirdly. ˈeeriness, an undefined sense of fear; superstitious dread. ˈeerisome a., weird, gloomy.
| c 1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 295 Sum man for erynes will trymbill. 1724 Ramsay Vision vi, Debar then..All eiryness or feir. 1848 C. Brontë J. Eyre, It spoke in pain and woe..eerily. 1863 Gd. Words 522 A weird unhappy sound! what could it be That through the wan night wailed so eerily. 1839 De Quincey Recoll. Lakes Wks. II. 13 Feeling the sensation of eeriness as twilight came on. 1865 Jrnl. Horticulture Christm. No. 16/2 From that night I have never known eeriness. 1818 Edin. Mag. Dec. 503 (Jam.) The kye..gied a dowf an' eerisome crune. 1832–53 Whistlebinkie (Sc. Songs) Ser. iii. 49 The objects sae dear..Turn eerisome hame thoughts. |