Homely means simple and comfortable, or plain in looks. A homely kitchen, homely cooking, a homely face.
This is the sharpest British-American split of any common adjective. In Britain homely is warm: a homely room is cosy and a homely meal is comforting. In America it means plain or unattractive, applied to a face, and it is an insult. Saying somebody looks homely means opposite things on the two sides of the Atlantic. Note homeliness; and homey, the American word for the British sense.
1adjectivehomelySimple and comfortable, in British use.
“The guesthouse was homely, with soft armchairs and a fire in the sitting room.”
2adjectiveplainPlain in looks, in American use.
“Calling somebody homely means roughly opposite things by country.”
homely is a quality of homeliness or plainness.
Old English hamlic is home plus -ly, meaning of the home. The two modern senses both descend from that, one keeping the comfort and one the plainness.
Proto-West Germanic
*haimalīk — of or characteristic of home
Old English
*hāmlīċ — of the home, domestic
Middle English
homly
English, today
homely
Built from
From Middle English homly, hoomly, hamely (“domestic, familiar, plain, unattractive”), from Old English hāmlīċ (“of the home, domestic”), from Proto-West Germanic haimalīk (“of or characteristic of home”), equivalent to home + ly. Cognate with Scots hamely (“familiar, personal, private”), West Frisian heimelik, Dutch heimelijk (“secret, secretive, clandestine”), German heimlich (“secret, secretive, clandestine, undercover”), Danish hemmelig (“secret”), Swedish hemlig (“secret, concealed, privy, covert”), Faroese heimligur (“homelike, homey”), Icelandic heimlegur (“homely; worldly”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA