Coaxingly

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. In a gentle and persuasive way that aims to influence someone's actions or decisions through encouragement and charm
2. By employing a soft and persuasive tone that encourages compliance or agreement without force
3. Using a soft and appealing approach that gently persuades someone to act or agree

Etymology: "Coaxingly" is an adverb formed from "coaxing" plus the suffix "-ly", which turns an adjective into an adverb describing the manner of an action. The adjective "coaxing" comes from the verb "coax", so the word is a plain derivative rather than a new coinage. The suffix has a longer history than the word it sits on. Its ancestor is a Proto-Germanic element meaning something like "body" or "form", which survived in Old English as "-līċe", the source of the adverb ending in words like "quickly" and "slowly". Over the centuries "-līċe" softened into "-ly", and English speakers could attach it to almost any adjective whose meaning could be described as a way of doing something. Read this way, "coaxingly" is simply the manner of coaxing: doing it with gentle, patient persuasion rather than force, and the ending itself carries the old idea of a shape or manner of acting.

Synonyms: persuasively, cajolingly, enticingly

Antonyms: forcefully, coercively