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Nelly vs Helly - What's the difference?

nelly | helly |

As a proper noun nelly

is a spelling variant of nellie, a diminutive of the female given names eleanor and helen.

As an adjective helly is

hellish, infernal.

nelly

English

Etymology 1

Shortened from Nelly Duff'', for ''puff'', i.e. breath of ''life

Noun

(-) (not used in the plural)
  • (Cockney rhyming slang) Life.
    • Usage notes
    * Used principally in the phrase (not on your nelly).

    Etymology 2

    From the woman's name, Nelly

    Noun

    (nellies)
  • (derogatory, slang) An effeminate homosexual man.
  • (British, slang) A silly person.
  • A common name for the giant petrels, Macronectes giganteus'' and ''Macronectes halli
    • Hyponyms
    * (petrel) Antarctic giant petrel, northern piant petrel, southern giant fulmar, southern giant petrel

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (slang) Unmanly, effeminate.

    • helly

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Hellish, infernal.
  • * 1603', Samuel Harsnet, ''A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures'', quoted in '''2013 in ''Shakespeare's England: Life in Elizabethan & Jacobean Times (ISBN 0750952822):
    • These monster-swarms his Holiness and his helly crew have scraped and raked together out of old doting historiographers, wizardising augurs, imposturing soothsayers, dreaming poets, chimerical conceiters, and coiners of fables, .
  • * 1892 , Theodore Sydney Vaughn, Satan in Arms Against Columbus , page 138:
    • Then wavered all the rebel rings, And of a sudden, ere a single blow Was struck, precipitous they shrieking fled, And sought the portals of their Helly home.

    References

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