Comely means pleasant to look at, in old use. A comely young woman, comely features, fair and comely.
It is archaic and it belongs to a register — biblical, historical, mock-antique — rather than to ordinary description. It once also meant fitting or seemly, which is the older sense, and the two came together in the idea of what is pleasingly proper. Note that it is pronounced KUM-lee, not COME-lee.
1adjectivecomelyPleasant to look at.
“The innkeeper's comely daughter caught the eye of every traveller who passed through.”
comely is a quality of appearance.
Middle English comly meant becoming or seemly as well as beautiful. It is probably related to becoming in the same sense.
Proto-Indo-European
*gewH- — to call, name; to call on, invoke; to cry, cry out
Proto-Germanic
*kūmiz — delicate; feeble
Old English
cymlīċ
Middle English
comly
English, today
comely
Built from
The adjective is derived from Middle English comly, comli, cumly, cumlich (“of a person: beautiful, handsome, etc.; of noble birth, bearing, or character; of behaviour: appropriate, becoming; of an event: convenient; favourable; of a thing: beautiful, wonderful; fitting, proper”), from Old English cymlīċ, cȳmlīċ (“beautiful, comely; splendid; convenient”), from cȳme (“beautiful, comely; splendid; exquisite, fine”) + -līċ. Cȳme is derived from Proto-Germanic kūmiz (“delicate; feeble”), from kūmalīkaz (“dear; pitiful”), probably related to kūmaz, kūmijaz (“pitiful; frail, weak”), from Proto-Indo-European gewH- (“to call, name; to call on, invoke; to cry, cry out”). The word was influenced by come. The verb is derived from the adjective. Middle Dutch komelick, komlick
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA