hopeably

English

Etymology

hope +‎ -ably

Adverb

hopeably (not comparable)

1. (nonstandard) hopefully; in a way that one would hope for
   • 1975, John B. Bremner, review of Strictly Speaking, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, March 1975; vol. 52, 1: p. 156. [1]

     Hopeably, Newman will win awards for Strictly Speaking. Like, yunno, I mean, Newman writes real good like newsmen used to could.

   • 1987 August 19, John DeMott, “Of Elvis and W.C. Handy”, in Tri-State Defender, page 5:

     The change reflects, hopeably, a significant improvement in this city's social climate.

   • 2000, Punjab History Conference: Thirty-first Session, March 19-21, 1999 (Proceedings), Punjabi University Publication Bureau, page iii:

     We have entered the 21st century and the third millennium — an era which hopeably would be qualitatively different from the earlier ones in terms of foundational postulates, value system, mindset and life styles.

   • 2000, Ansley J. Coale, Ansley J. Coale: An Autobiography, American Philosophical Society, pages 93–4:

     I used to illustrate the argument by the example that one can say "Regrettably, it is going to rain," but not "Regretfully, it is going to rain." When Preston went to Berkeley after receiving his PhD, in his first letter he wrote "Hopeably, everything is going well."

   • 2006, Robert A. Heinlein, Spider Robinson, Variable Star‎^[2], Tor Books:

     The ramjet should have failed, and then whoever run the race to the Power Room should have yanked his smoking body out of the way and, hopeably, restarted it.

   • 2007 January 5, “Governor sets stage for new Vermont”, in St. Albans Messenger, page A4:

     But we have established the importance of both in the mindset of Vermonters and, hopeably our legislators, which is what makes the essential challenges ahead even plausible.

Usage notes

Linguists had remarked on the lack of "hopeably" by the late 19th century. See, for example, [3] [4]

It was proposed as a "proper" alternative to hopefully in the sense of "it is to be hoped", by analogy with "regretfully" and "regrettably". (See [5], by the same author as the 1975 citation, and the Coale citation above.) It has not caught on, perhaps because "regrettable" exists and "hopeable" does not.

It seems to have gained currency among Sikhs in India. The 2000 citation above is one of many.