Noun: downright
| Singular | downright |
| Plural | downrights |
Sample Sentences
-
It is ſaid, there are nine Sorts of VVool contained in one good Fleece, vvhich to make out, they ſay, that there are five Sorts for making Cloth, and four for Combings; a ſuperfine VVool, a head VVool, Dovvnrights, Seconds, and Livery. [1749, William Ellis, “Of Sheering Sheep”, in A Compleat System of Experienced Improvements, Made on Sheep, Grass-lambs, and House-lambs: Or, The Country Gentleman’s, the Grasier’s, the Sheep-dealer’s, and the Shepherd’s Sure Guide: […], London: […] T[homas] Astley; and sold by R[oberts?] Baldwin, Jun. […]; and E. Nicolson, […], →OCLC, book III, page 382:]
-
[T]he middle of it [i.e., the thigh, is] the prop or thiller, the body the vveight, and the leg the povver; either of vvhich being brought by a ſharp angle to a dovvnright or perpendicular or more, vvith the thiller, vvill by ſo much leſſen the vveight, from the yielded aſſumption in that mechanick povver, That the point, vvhich is toucht by a perpendicular from the centre of heavineſs, is one of the terms: […] [1674, N[athaniel] Fairfax, chapter V, in A Treatise of the Bulk and Selvedge of the World. Wherein the Greatness, Littleness and Lastingness of Bodies are Freely Handled. […], London: […] Robert Boulter, […], →OCLC, page 153:]
Nouns inflected like downright
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. The adverb is derived from Middle English dounright, dounriȝt (“right down, straight down; face down; vertically; used for emphasis: outright, downright”), and then either:
2. * possibly an aphetic form of adounright (“straight down; directly, immediately (?)”), from adoun (“downward”, adverb) (from Old English adūn, adūne (“down, downward”, adverb), ultimately from dūn (“hill, mountain”), from Proto-West Germanic *dūnā, *dūnu (“hill; sand dune”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“haze, mist; smoke”)) + right (“direct; straight; etc.”, adjective) (from Old English riht (“straight; etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten”)); or
3. * from doun (“down, downward; etc.”, adverb) (from Old English dūne (“down”), ultimately from dūn (“hill, mountain”): see above) + right.
4. By surface analysis, down (adverb) + right (adjective).
5. The adjective and noun are derived from the adverb. Noun sense 1 (“low grade of wool”) may be from the obsolete adjective sense 2.2 (“in its most basic form; ordinary”). See: Middle English Nouns '
dounright', Old English Nouns '
dūne'.