Added to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives meaning “having the quality of”, either “involving the referent” or “analogous to it”. · Added to verbs to form adjectives meaning "inclined to".
From English dialectal (Kentish) dingy (“dirty”), of unknown origin, though probably from Middle English *dingy, dungy, from Old English *dyncgiġ (“covered with dung, dirty”), an umlaut form of duncge, dung (“dung”), equivalent to dung + -y, hence a doublet of dungy.
Added to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives meaning “having the quality of”, either “involving the referent” or “analogous to it”. · Added to verbs to form adjectives meaning "inclined to".