Hopefully ...?

Question

Anyone else notice how frequently the word hopefully is misused, especially on the evening news ?

It's an adverb as in "She waited hopefully for a sane answer".

Answer 1

Actually, I have been a student and teacher of English for many, many years, and I appreciate anyone who has a concern for good language usage.

Regrettably, I have many more concerns about the contemporary use of language than the use or misuse of the word "hopefully."

It may grate on your ears, but hopefully it will not get you in a dither.

Personally, I can no longer watch the evening news because I cannot tolerate acceptance of the Machiavellian deceptiveness of "spinmeisters" and "swift-boaters" as news.

Hopefully, self-appointed language police are attending to "doublespeak" with the same tenacity as to split infinitives, prepositions at the end of senctences (both of which annoy me to this day more than they should) and "hopefully" used as a sentence adverb.

Frankly, this is a fait accompli.

Certainly, other concerns are more important, and I hope that you agree -- for, by the way, you might notice that every sentence in this message involves such a sentence adverb, all of which will be considered quite acceptable, I think, except the recent adaptation of "hopefully" to this usage.

Answer 2

Misused? What're you talking?

'Hopefully' is very much 'Rightly' in use. The wide acceptance of the usage is a testimony to its USEFULNESS & there is no equivalent word / term to SUBSTITUTE it.

Hopefully is widely used as a Sentence Adverb meaning, 'in a hopeful manner', 'with hope, 'It's hoped'. / 'optimistically' & all -in-one! That's its greatness & indispensibility.!

The Dictionary allows it. Every one uses it. It is unacceptable to some cranky PURISTS & the snobbish Usgae Panel Members.

The word in this sense got currency as early as in 1960s & is now a well-established term.

Eg: Hopefully, the bill will be adopted.

Hopefully, Usage Panel will come around * accept the word, 'Hopefully.! The sooner the better..

What do the Critics of this term have against this term? It is just like other similar terms, Mercifully, Certainly, Thankfully, EXPRESSING a GENERAL ATTITUDE.

Hopefully, the differences will sink & reason dawns on the critics!

Source:

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Answer 3

This another case of each generation putting its stamp on language.
Cool is now widely accepted as meaning good, where as in my day if you were cool, you put on a jumper!
The orriginal meaning of 'naughty' meant possessing no things, like a beggar or vagrant. Now it relates to bad behaviour.
A hospital was originally the part of the castle set aside for your guests (your hospitality suite). When fevers and plagues arrived, the suites were isolated from the family quarters, so the sick and dying were housed there... hence hospital being a place for the sick.
Language changes and adapts with each new generation and invention ( I caught fish in a net, now I comunicate with people around the world with it!).

Answer 4

Wow. Somebody got their knickers in a twist over this, didn't they?

Here's a rational answer:
You're right, "hopefully" was originally a pure adverb meaning "in a hopeful manner," as in, "Will you marry me?" he asked hopefully. Sometime in the last 15-20 years it began to be mis-used to mean, "I hope," as in "Hopefully they will renew my contract." This construction became so common that language police now regard it as standard usage, although those who strive for precision in language avoid this construction.

Any living language changes constantly. Some of these changes are irksome (e.g. "medal" becoming a verb, as in the Olympics), some are imaginative and creative, some are just plain ignorant. (My pet peeve is "the proof is in the pudding," a meaningless corruption of "the proof of the pudding is in the eating.") We can deplore these mutations...or we can just accept them as one of the characteristics of spoken and written language.

Answer 5

Any use of hopefully is incorrect.

Answer 6

No but now that you mention it...