Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb In a human way.
- adverb Within the scope of human means, capabilities, or powers.
- adverb According to human experience or knowledge.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In a human manner; after the manner of men; according to human knowledge or belief: as, humanly speaking, it is impossible.
- Kindly; humanely.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb In a human manner; after the manner of men; according to the knowledge or wisdom of men.
- adverb obsolete Kindly; humanely.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb In a
human manner.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb in the manner of human beings
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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As a consequence people get burned out, if not self destructive, the turnover is high, and we fail to develop the structures and support that enable people to pursue a long term humanly worthwhile experience in the Perth left.
unknown title 2009
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As a consequence people get burned out, if not self destructive, the turnover is high, and we fail to develop the structures and support that enable people to pursue a long term humanly worthwhile experience in the Perth left.
unknown title 2009
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Jim Dyckman and Charity Coe Cheever: the problem that Kedzie was going to seem to solve -- as one solves any problem humanly, which is by substituting one or more new problems in place of the old.
We Can't Have Everything Rupert Hughes 1914
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"I don't know why it shouldn't make me -- humanly, which is what we're speaking of -- as right as it makes you."
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All this is quite as naturally and "humanly" conceived and written on St Paul's part as anything that I or my reader ever wrote about joys and griefs, our own or of our friends.
Philippian Studies Lessons in Faith and Love from St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians 1880
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The local police catch them and give them rabies shots, shoot a plastic tag into their ears and 'humanly' release them back into the 'wild'.
TravelPod.com TravelStream™ — Recent Entries at TravelPod.com 2010
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It had pleased her "humanly", she told Mr Verini, adding "but ...".
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Artificial skin with optical sensors to give robots 'humanly' touch
unknown title 2009
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I want, in other words, to speak about religious faith as a process of educating our vision and educating our passions; educating our vision so that we understand how to see that we don't see, how to see behind surfaces, the depth that we're not going to master; educating our passions in the sense of helping us to grow up 'humanly' in such a way that we don't take fright at this strangeness and mysteriousness and run away for all we're worth.
'What Difference Does it Make?' - The Gospel in Contemporary Culture 2008
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I want, in other words, to speak about religious faith as a process of educating our vision and educating our passions; educating our vision so that we understand how to see that we don't see, how to see behind surfaces, the depth that we're not going to master; educating our passions in the sense of helping us to grow up 'humanly' in such a way that we don't take fright at this strangeness and mysteriousness and run away for all we're worth.
'What Difference Does it Make?' - The Gospel in Contemporary Culture 2008
oroboros commented on the word humanly
A new OED word. "...a good example of an old word that is new to the dictionary..." --Graeme Diamond, Principal Editor, New Words, Oxford English Dictionary
March 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word humanly
Strange. I'm sure I have been hearing people use the phrase "humanly possible" all of my life (and I met Abraham passed 50 a couple of years ago, as Slovenes say). So is this really a "new" word?
March 13, 2009
reesetee commented on the word humanly
"Met Abraham"? I love it! *plans to use this phrase frequently*
I guess that's what Mr. Diamond means by adding a "new" word that's already old.
March 13, 2009
qroqqa commented on the word humanly
'New to the dictionary' refers to the adjective, which is only attested from Caxton:
1481 CAXTON tr. Hist. Reynard Fox (1970) 69 Whan a man doth amys And thenne by counseyl amendeth it That is humaynly Du. menschelic And so ought he to doo.
The adverb is a different, long-established word.
March 13, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word humanly
That Caxton. What a guy.
March 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word humanly
I think I understand, though it's surprising that the adjective humanly has appeared so rarely since Caxton, for it follows the same pattern as godly, womanly, and manly, and indeed, the adjectival suffix -ly seems fairly productive, e.g. a person can act in a doctorly manner; one may look for cousinly support; a woman may show wifely devotion; members of the Religious Society of Friends encourage Quakerly behavior; etc.
March 13, 2009
seanahan commented on the word humanly
Is this the kind of word that is almost always used colloquially? Also, has anyone heard this in a positive context? That is, "remembering ten thousand digits of pi is humanly possible".
March 30, 2009
vanishedone commented on the word humanly
Contrasted with speaking technically/dispassionately: 'Or what was it Abraham did for the universal? Let me speak humanly about it, really humanly!' (Kierkegaard, Fear & Trembling, trans. Alastair Hannay).
March 30, 2009
seanahan commented on the word humanly
I've never that usage of humanly before, but I've also never read Kierkegaard.
March 31, 2009