subtly
(adverb) in a subtle manner; “late nineteenth-century French opera at its most beautiful, subtly romantic with a twilight melancholy”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
subtly (comparative more subtly, superlative most subtly)
With subtleness, in a subtle manner; with cleverness rather than brute force.
• bustly, butyls
Source: Wiktionary
Sub"tly, adv.
Definition: In a subtle manner; slyly; artfully; cunningly. Thou seest how subtly to detain thee I devise. Milton.
2. Nicely; delicately. In the nice bee what sense so subtly true. Pope. Subtly communicating itself to my sensibilities, but evading the analysis of my mind. Hawthorne.
3. Deceitfully; delusively. [Obs.] Shak.
Sub"tle, a. [Compar. Subtler; superl. Subtlest.] Etym: [OE. sotil, subtil, OF. soutil, later subtil, F. subtil, L. subtilis; probably, originally, woven fine, and fr. sub under + tela a web, fr. texere to weave. See Text, and cf. Subtile.]
1. Sly in design; artful; cunning; insinuating; subtile; -- applied to persons; as, a subtle foe. "A subtle traitor." Shak.
2. Cunningly devised; crafty; treacherous; as, a subtle stratagem.
3. Characterized by refinement and niceness in drawing distinctions; nicely discriminating; -- said of persons; as, a subtle logician; refined; tenuous; sinuous; insinuating; hence, penetrative or pervasive; -- said of the mind; its faculties, or its operations; as, a subtle intellect; a subtle imagination; a subtle process of thought; also, difficult of apprehension; elusive. Things remote from use, obscure and subtle. Milton.
4. Smooth and deceptive. [Obs.] Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground [bowling ground]. Shak.
Syn.
– Artful; crafty; cunning; shrewd; sly; wily. Subtle is the most comprehensive of these epithets and implies the finest intellectual quality. See Shrewd, and Cunning.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
22 February 2025
(noun) the use of closed-class words instead of inflections: e.g., ‘the father of the bride’ instead of ‘the bride’s father’
The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.
