But then another person said it, and another. I dismissed that claim as an eccentricity. Which is why it struck me as a little strange when someone first insisted to me that hopefully couldn’t be used in the only way I naturally used it. And, interestingly enough, this newer meaning has pretty well replaced the original meaning, so much so that many people my age (myself included) do not have the original meaning available in our lexicons. The OED first notes this usage in 1932, in a pretty high place: the New York Times Book Review. (2) in the late revival a number of persons were hopefully converted in Scituate īut then hopefully gained a related usage as the sentential adverb. This argument, as far as I can tell, runs as follows: hopefully started its life as an adverb meaning “in a hopeful manner”, and that’s how it was used up until the early 20th century, as in (2): They see a usage like (1), of hopefully as a sentential adverb meaning something between “I hope” and “With luck”, and then they start a tirade about how that’s not what hopefully means, about the sad state of grammar in our modern world, and on and on. Now, this commenter was obviously quite polite about it, but I’ve seen others who are quite different. (1) Hopefully my phrasing of the question tipped you off that this was a trick. You may be correct about the word “loan” Gabe, but your credibility is damaged by your incorrect use of the word “hopefully”. Good gravy, why are there so many misguided souls up in arms over this innocent little word? I received a comment about it recently:
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