Gently

Part of speech: adverb

Pronunciation: /ˈd͡ʒɛntli/

Definitions

1. In a soft, mild, or tender manner, without force or harshness
2. In a manner that is characterized by softness and care, avoiding any harshness or forceful actions
3. Done in a way that is soft, tender, and not forceful

Etymology: "Gently" is simply "gentle" with the adverbial ending "-ly" attached, but the word that produced it was once a noun-based adjective with a much grander pedigree. "Gentle" came into English from Old French "gentil," meaning noble or well-born, which in turn descends from Latin "gentilis," relating to a clan or family. In its earliest English uses, a gentle person was someone of good birth, and the sense of kindness and mildness grew out of that idea of refined, gentlemanly conduct. The adverb took shape in Middle English as "gentilly" and "gentlych," forms that carried the same sense of nobly or courteously. Those early spellings show the ending being attached to the older adjective stem, and the adverb's modern form was shaped by a sound simplification along the way: "-lely" was reduced to "-ly," dropping one of the two l-sounds. The result is a word whose meaning of softness and care descends directly from a social rank.

Synonyms: softly, smoothly, tenderly, mildly, carefully

Antonyms: harshly, roughly, crudely, violently, aggressively