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Why does the word Badly is there but not goodly ...? What is the reason ?

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    It does exist.
    – Nathan Tuggy
    Commented Oct 24, 2017 at 7:43
  • I think the questioner means "why isn't "goodly" used as an adverb, in the way that "badly" corresponds to "bad"?". However, as far as I know, etymology is off topic in ELL.
    – rjpond
    Commented Oct 24, 2017 at 8:04
  • you're probably right however I chose to answer his exact question as its not in my opinion correct to second-guess someone's possible meaning and then answer that. I don't recall seeing old text with "badly" in it, so possibly they never co-existed in the way that he is thinking of . As far as I know, the archaic form of bad is "ill" as in "ill-informed", "ill-done" more as an analogue to "well-"
    – bigbadmouse
    Commented Oct 24, 2017 at 8:19

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"Why" is not normally a question that can be asked of a grammatical point, as it asks for "purpose", and languages are not designed on purpose.

We can look at "how". There was a merger of several different words in ancient Germanic languages: Proto-germanic "*welo", "*bat-" and "*godaz-", which meant roughly "wish, abundantly", "good" and "unite, suitable" respectively.

The comparative forms of "*bat-" became the comparative forms of "*godaz-", hence we get "good-better-best". And the adverb "well" picked up the adverbal meanings related to good. This borrowing happened in early Germanic languages and was already present in Anglo-Saxon.

The regular adverb "goodly" does exist, but takes some of the old meanings of "well". It means "abundant", and is usually used as an adjective (it has been used as an adjective since Old English): "I ate a goodly amount of pie" means "I ate a lot of pie" - however it's not common.

Such mergers also explain "be/am/is/are/was/were" "go/went".

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  • Good answer, but "goodly" as an adjective actually goes back to Old English, whereas "goodly" as an adverb is first attested in the 1200s. And the association between "good" and "well" predates the English language, according to the OED: "Already in Old English, the most commonly used corresponding adverb [of good] is wel well adv.; comparison with other Germanic languages suggests that this correspondence is inherited."
    – rjpond
    Commented Oct 24, 2017 at 17:34
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there was, its now an archaic word - used to mean "well formed", "sufficient", "appropriate"

link to Oxford English Dictionary

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