dear vs worthly

dear

adj
  • Precious to or greatly valued by someone. 

  • A formal way to start (possibly after my) addressing somebody at the beginning of a letter, memo etc. 

  • Loving, affectionate, heartfelt 

  • Loved; lovable. 

  • An ironic way to start (often after my) addressing an inferior. 

  • Lovely; kind. 

  • A formal way to start (often after my) addressing somebody one likes or regards kindly. 

  • High in price; expensive. 

  • Severe, or severely affected; sore. 

noun
  • An affectionate, familiar term of address, such as used between husband and wife. 

  • A beloved person. 

  • A very kind, loving person. 

  • An elderly person, especially a woman. 

adv
  • Dearly; at a high price. 

worthly

adj
  • Having great worth or value; valuable; important; dignified; stately; excellent; worthy; deserving (of). 

How often have the words dear and worthly occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )