pacifically

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English pacific

Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.?

Proto-Italic *-ālis

Latin -ālisbor.

Old French -albor.

▲

Latin -ālis

Old French -elbor.

▲

Latin -ālisbor.

Middle English -al

Proto-Indo-European *leyg-

Proto-Germanic *līkąder.

Proto-Germanic *-līkaz

Proto-Germanic *-ê

Proto-Germanic *-līkê

Old English -līċe

Middle English -ly

Middle English -ally

English -ally

English pacifically

From pacific + -ally.

Adverb

pacifically (comparative more pacifically, superlative most pacifically)

1. In a calm or quiet manner.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 194:

     The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the Essex marshes was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds.

2. In a soothing manner.
   • 1828, British and Foreign State Papers, page 962:

     To arrange and compose pacifically, the differences which may arise between the Federal States; and, should the same not succeed, to point out to the Supreme Chief the measures which should be adopted to re-establish peace and harmony […]

Synonyms

• (in a calm manner): calmly, mildly, quietly
• (in a soothing manner): soothingly