Silvery comes from silver (Old English seolfor) plus the adjectival suffix -y; the metal name is of Germanic origin, akin to Old High German silabar. The historical chain includes Old English seolfor and Proto-Germanic *silubra-. The formation is best read as suffixal and borrowed: the word silvery carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "resembling silver in color or sound; clear and melodious". English derivatives include silveriness; related English forms include silver and silvern. The result is a adj whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.