Thusly

Factual Questions
1

Seemingly simple question, hopefully a simple answer:

Is thusly a word? I was not aware of its existence or use in the more educated circles on this country. Today I received an email with the following sentence: “It reads thusly” or such. I’m not going to get into the semantic problems with an inanimate object reading itself (“it” was/is our mission statement). I’m wondering if thusly is a word, and if so, if its use is as indicated above.

2

It’s not in my dictionary. Can you think of a sentence construction where you might prefer it over the simpler “thus”?

3

Try thw M/W Dictionary---------

4

Yeah, it’s in Webster’s online. It’s an adverb meaning " in this manner." Compare to “thus”, which is an adverb meaning “in this manner.”

Apparently somebody somewhen decided, if it’s an adverb, it should end in “ly”. I guess it could go into the redundant word bag along with"orientate".

5

As I don’t use the word, nor do I even consider it to be an identified and accepted word (in the sense of being in the dictionary), no. I either use thus or figure another way to say whatever it is I’m trying to say.

EZ, the MW dictionary doesn’t have as many words as, say, the OED, which is what I’ll probably use.

6

thus-ly (thus’lee) adv.

  1. THUS.
    Usage. Usage guides generally regard THUSLY as a pointless synonym for THUS. Speakers and writers who use THUSLY often do so only for humorous effect.

My little Random House Dictionary

7

The OED says:

So they go for colloquial, but do give cites for usage, so it is a word.

Ugly