Naturely

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. Archaic word meaning in a way that is in keeping with a thing's inherent character or with the normal course of things
2. An old-fashioned adverb describing something done by nature, through innate disposition, or in an unforced, native manner
3. Dated term for acting in accordance with one's innate qualities or in the ordinary, unaffected way that nature intends

Etymology: Before "naturally" became the standard adverb, English speakers used "naturely" to mean "by nature" or "in the natural way." The form is the adverbial ending "-ly" attached to "natural," which came into English from Old French "naturel," from Latin "naturalis," meaning "belonging to nature." That Latin root is "natura," from "nasci," "to be born," so the idea underneath was something like "the way a thing comes into being." The form is now obsolete. It survived into early modern English, and you can still find it in older texts, but "naturally" displaced it. Its history is a small example of how English adverbs were regularly built from adjectives by adding a suffix, a pattern that some older forms kept longer than others.