Befitting a prince; generous, magnificent, or substantial in amount or quality.
From Middle English, combining prince (from Latin princeps 'first, chief') with the suffix -ly. The word evolved from describing literal royal behavior to meaning anything lavish or generous.
Princely demonstrates how aristocratic language becomes a measure of excellence - even in democratic societies, we use royal metaphors like 'princely sum' to indicate magnificence, showing how historical power structures leave linguistic traces.
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