baldly

adverbC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — bald sits at #2,483Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Baldly means plainly and without softening what is said. Put baldly, stated baldly, to put it baldly.

It nearly always appears as put baldly, warning that what follows will be blunt. The bald in it is the sense of bare rather than anything to do with hair.

Definitions of baldly

1adverbbaldlyPlainly and without softening what is said.C1
“She stated the facts baldly: the company was closing, and everyone would lose their jobs.”

baldly is a manner.

Where it comes from

From bald in the sense of bare or plain, plus -ly.

Middle English
balled
English
bald
English, today
baldly

Built from

bald · Middle English — bald
balle · Middle English — ball, round object, knoll, head

From bald + ly. bald comes from Middle English balled, from bal. From Middle English balled, ballid, bald (“bald”), of unknown origin. Probably formed from Middle English bal, balle (“ball, round object, knoll, head”). Compare gmq-oda bældet (“bald”). An alternate etymology relates it to Old English bǣl (“fire, flame; funeral pyre”), from Proto-Germanic bēlą. Compare Albanian balë (“white spot on the forehead”) and ballë (“forehead”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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