Assumably

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. In a manner that involves making an assumption or presumption without full proof
2. Used to indicate something is accepted as true based on reasonable belief rather than direct evidence
3. Expressing that a statement or action is taken as fact pending further confirmation

Etymology: "Assumably" is simply "assumable" with the adverbial "-ly" added, so its history is really the history of its parts. The verb "assume" came into English from Latin "assumere," meaning "to take up" or "to take to oneself," and the sense of supposing something to be true developed from that physical idea of taking something on. The suffix "-able," meaning "capable of being," arrived through Old French from Latin "-abilis," and attached to "assume" to give the adjective "assumable," meaning something that can reasonably be taken as true. The ending "-ly" has a longer ancestry. It descends from Old English "-līce," a relative of "like" in the sense of "having the appearance of," so that a word like "assumably" originally carried the sense of being in the manner of something assumable. Over the Middle English period this ending wore down to "-ly," which English speakers now add freely to adjectives to make adverbs.

Synonyms: presumably, probably