positively
advUK /ˈpɒz.ɪ.tɪv.li/ · US /ˈpɑ.zɪ.tɪv.li/
Etymology From Middle English positively, equivalent to positive + -ly.
1
Manner In a positive manner.
- He approached the interview positively.
- There’s nothing – not. one. thing. – that Trump could do or say that would be received positively by TDSers.2018 July 20, Chris Cillizza, “What is ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ – and do you have it?”, in CNN:
2
Modal With certainty.
- I will positively be there at 8 a.m.
- The carriage nearly overturned, and he saw her eyes blaze at him, and she positively hissed, “I suppose you are enjoying this?”1920, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Escape”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 277:
3
Absolutely; utterly.
- […] Easter Sunday, for all its traditions, is a gladless day in London. There is positively nothing to do.1915, Ernest Temple Thurston, The City of Beautiful Nonsense, page 118:
- She talked and laughed and positively forgot until he had come in (just as she had imagined) that Pearl Fulton had not turned up.1918 August, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Bliss”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 127:
1 more example
- "Positively do not open," reads the message under the cabinet in which Ed and Lorraine put the possessed Annabelle doll.2017 September 16, Hollywood, “Demonic possession, cries for help: Read the chilling true story behind the Conjuring’s creepy Annabelle doll”, in Hindustan Times:
4
Very.
- I had a positively wonderful time.
- The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. […] The bed was the most extravagant piece. Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
1 more example
- In the 90s it was Craigslist and AOL chat rooms, then Match.com and Kiss.com. But the lengthy, heartfelt e-mails exchanged by the main characters in You’ve Got Mail (1998) seem positively Victorian in comparison to the messages sent on the average dating app today.2015, Nancy Jo Sales, “Tinder and the Dawn of the “Dating Apocalypse””, in Vanity Fair:
- Derived terms
- absatively, absitively, absotively, nonpositively, photopositively, posilutely, positutely, posolutely
- Related terms
- absitively posolutely