Tacitly

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. Done so in a manner understood without being directly stated or expressed in words
2. In a way that implies understanding without the need for verbal expression or explicit agreement
3. Executed through unspoken agreement, indicating understanding without verbal acknowledgment

Etymology: "Tacitly" is a plain formation: the adjective "tacit" with the suffix "-ly" added to turn it into an adverb. "Tacit" came into English from Latin "tacitus", the past participle of "tacere", "to be silent", and so the word's core idea is literally silence. Something done tacitly is done without speaking, the way a wordless agreement is reached. The adjective's Latin ancestry runs back to the Proto-Indo-European root "*leyg-", which meant "to leave" and eventually supplied the Germanic word "-lik", a suffix meaning "having the form or character of". That Germanic suffix passed through Old English as "-lic" and Middle English as "-ly", the same ending found in words like "lovely" and "quickly". English, in other words, did not invent the "-ly" ending on the spot; it inherited a suffix that had been shaping adjectives and adverbs for well over a thousand years before "tacitly" appeared.

Synonyms: implicitly, silently, unspokenly

Antonyms: explicitly, overtly