Characterized by helplessness or lacking power; not helpful (archaic or dialectal).
From 'help' combined with an archaic suffix '-ly' that could form adjectives (different from the modern '-ly' for adverbs). This is an obsolete formation, largely replaced by 'helpless.'
This word is so archaic it barely appears in modern dictionaries—it's a linguistic ghost, replaced by the much more common 'helpless,' showing how English regularly abandons old word formations for cleaner options.
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