Facultatively

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. In a way that allows for alternative choices or conditions, while not being obligatory or fixed
2. Relating to a situation where particular actions or characteristics are optional rather than mandatory
3. Done in a manner that permits varying options or behaviors without strict adherence to a single method or requirement

Etymology: "Facultatively" is formed from "facultative" plus the adverbial suffix "-ly", so its history is largely the history of its base. "Facultative" comes from Latin "facultas", meaning "ability" or "capacity", which itself derives from "facilis", "easy" or "able to be done". The adjective arrived in English through a scholarly and legal vocabulary, where it came to describe things that are optional or permissive rather than compulsory, and that sense was later extended in biology to organisms that can switch between ways of living, such as bacteria that can respire with or without oxygen. The suffix has a much longer ancestry than the Latin base. "-ly" descends from an old Germanic word for "body" or "form", which gave the sense "in the form of" and grew into the common adverb-forming ending. It appeared in Old English as "-lice" and was gradually shortened to "-ly" in Middle English, so the ending carries a very old, concrete idea of shape or appearance into every adverb it forms.

Synonyms: optionally, voluntarily, electively, discretionarily, conditionally

Antonyms: obligatorily, compulsorily, mandatorily, necessarily, involuntarily