Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris O'Carroll
I, too, was raised to look down on those who say "hopefully" to mean "it is to be hoped" rather than "in a hopeful manner." But a wise lexicographer coaxed me down off my high horse by pointing out that English might be better off if it had a generally accepted equivalent of the perfectly literate German hoffentlich. After all, "thankfully" and "happily" don't just mean "in a thankful manner" or "in a happy manner." So hopefully we can stop having a problem here.
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A friend of mine who speaks excellent German also told me many years ago that English, strangely for so rich a language, lacks the equivalent of
hoffentlich. But in his view, that word should be
hopeably. After all, we have both
regretfully and
regrettably, so why should hope be denied similar treatment?
I fear the day will come when people no longer understand the phrase "it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive".