Ruffianly

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. Exhibiting behavior characteristic of a violent or lawless person
2. Displaying tough, aggressive, or criminal traits typical of a ruffian
3. Acting in a rough and disorderly manner associated with thugs

Etymology: Ruffianly is simply ruffian with the suffix -ly added, so its story is mostly the story of the noun it grows from. The adverb takes the sense of behaving like a ruffian, a brutal or lawless fellow, and is built by attaching the ending that English uses to turn adjectives into adverbs. That ending has a long pedigree. The -ly element descends from an Old English suffix, -līce, which itself traces back through Proto-Germanic to a root meaning "body" or "form," so that an adverb like this was once understood as "in the form of" the stated thing. Over the centuries the vowel wore down to the plain -ly we see today. The base word, ruffian, comes from an earlier English term for a rough, boisterous fellow, a sense that the adverb carries directly. Adding -ly to a noun meaning "a violent person" yields a phrase meaning "in a manner befitting such a person," which is why the word reads so naturally in sentences about rough or aggressive conduct.

Synonyms: roughly, brutally, violent, aggressively, boorishly

Antonyms: gently, softly, kindly, tenderly, politely