Etymology From late Middle English absolutly, equivalent to absolute + -ly. First attested in 1425.
1
In an absolute or unconditional manner; utterly, positively, wholly.
2
Independently; viewed without relation to other things or factors.
Another characteristic of numbers, which does not concern their mutual relations so much as themselves absolutely, is their ability, according to the ideas of Nicomachus, to conform to geometrical arrangements.1926, Nicomachus of Gerasa, Frank Egleston Robbins, Louis Charles Karpinski, translated by Martin Luther D'Ooge, Introduction to Arithmetic, New York: The Macmillan Company, page 50:
3
As an intensive: extremely, very, indeed.
But when it came to posing for publicity pictures they proved absolutely brilliant doing just what came naturally.1958 May 5, “Seasons' Sign in Sweden”, in LIFE, page 15:
The strength of the mouse is absolutely spectacular for various kinds of issues, until you find out that the mouse has absolutely no extracellular matrix to speak of in his optic nerve head.1995, Abbot F. Clark, Sherry Browder, H. Thomas Steely, Karen Wilson, David Cantu-Crouch, Mitchell D. McCartney, “Cell Biology of the Human Lamina Cribrosa”, in Stephen M. Drance, editor, Optic Nerve in Glaucoma, Kugler Publications, page 103:
2 more examples
The people of the Song dynasty, when they weren’t busy singing, were absolutely obsessed with feet. No one knows why. Perhaps the constant singing drove everyone crazy.2005, Annabelle du Fouet, “The murky world from whence it all came” (chapter 2), in Weather Balloons Make Rotten Sex Toys, Ellora's Cave, →ISBN, page 39:
The most absolutely terrifying creature lifted her head.2018, Adam Cece, The Unbelievably Scary Thing That Happened in Huggabie Falls, Text Publishing, page 212: