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Thursday 15 September 2011

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Purposely or purposefully?


Purposely or purposefully?
National offices of GreenpeaceImage via WikipediaPurposely: adverb - on purpose or by design; done with intention, deliberately.

Purposefully: adverb - having a purpose or meaning; designed or intentional; with a definite purpose in mind; resolute.

What you do 'purposely', you do deliberately.
What you do 'purposefully', you do resolutely and with some purpose in mind.

So:

'Jason placed the bar of wet soap purposely to see Jane step on it, slip and land in the bath full of cold water.'

'Jane purposefully surveyed the floor before entering the bathroom, knowing Jason was likely to try to play some dirty trick on her.'

15 September 1971 Greenpeace was founded. I joined them later in the same decade, about 1976, if I remember rightly.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Deliberately" is synonymous with as "intentionally;" seems to me that it's a distinction without a real difference. Jason placed the jar on the floor with a definite goal in mind-- seeing Jane slip and fall. Jane may have been suspicious, but she did not have a particular aim so much as a general hunch. If anything, I would have charged Jason with having behaved "purposefully," whereas Jane's behavior seems purposely performed, but for a vague fear.

stuartaken.net said...

Yes, the distinction is subtle.
Jane was, in fact, taking her action 'purposefully surveyed' with a purpose in mind. She didn't have a hunch; she knew: 'knowing Jason was likely..'. So, her purpose, in surveying the floor, was to outwit and defeat Jason's attempt to play a trick on her.
But I accept this was not the best example I could've chosen to illustrate the point.
Thanks for your comment.