gingerly
/ˈd͡ʒɪnd͡ʒɚli/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.59 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
In a cautious and delicate manner; (very) carefully or cautiously.
Example Sentences
- "He placed the glass jar gingerly on the concrete step."
- "In an other corner, Mistris Minx, a marchants wife, that will eate no cherries, forsooth, but when they are at twentie shillings a pound, that lookes as simperingly as if she were besmeard, and iets it as gingerly as if she were dancing the canaries, […]"
- "[E]nter you the chambers peaceably, locke the dores gingerly, looke vpon your vviues wofully, but vpon the euill-doers, moſt vvickedly."
- "Prithee, gentle officer, / Handle me gingerly, or I fall to pieces, / Before I can plead mine."
- "[…] Sir W. Pen made a formal speech in answer to a question of the King's, whether the lying of the sunk ships in the river would spoil the river. But, Lord! how gingerly he answered it, and with a deal of do that he did not know whether it would be safe as to the enemy to have them taken up, but that doubtless it would be better for the river to have them taken up."
- "My mother was going very gingerly in the dark along the paſſage which led to the parlour, as my uncle Toby pronounced the word wife."
Etymology
The second element is -ly; the first element may be Anglo-Norman gençur or Old French gençor, gensor, comparative forms (also attested as positives) of gent (“beautiful, noble, pleasant, courteous”). The Oxford English Dictionary notes, however, that there is a gap of a few centuries between the last appearance of gençor, etc., and the first appearance of gingerly. The adjective is derived from the adverb, possibly because -ly is also a suffix forming adjectives.
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈd͡ʒɪnd͡ʒɚli/
- British English: /ˈdʒɪn(d)ʒəli/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more gingerly (comparative)
most gingerly (superlative)
gingerlier (comparative, proscribed)
gingerliest (proscribed, rare)