Gingerly

Pronunciation

• US IPA: /ˈdʒɪn.dÊ’É™r.li/

Origin

(1510) Maybe from Old French gensor, comparative of gent ("nice, kind, pretty"), from Latin gentius ("well-born")

Full definition of gingerly

Adverb

1. Gently; in a delicate or cautious manner.He placed the glass jar gingerly on the concrete step.
• 2012, June 3, Nathan Rabin, TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992), Purchasing a snowplow transforms Homer into a new man. Mr. Burns' laziest employee suddenly becomes an ambitious self-starter who buys ad time on local television at 3:17 A.M (prime viewing hours, Homer gingerly volunteers, for everyone from alcoholics to the unemployable to garden-variety angry loners) and makes a homemade commercial costarring his family.

Adjective

1. (dated) Ginger.
• 1867, Rebecca Harding Davis, Waiting For The Verdict, chapter 19 “The Valley of the Shadow”, published 1868 in The Galaxy magazine, volume 4, page 223:But, ther’s somethin’ in the very look and voice of Jeems Strebling, even in his gingerly walk, that riles all the black drop in me.
• 1886, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge, :…penetrating cautiously into dark cellars, sallying forth with gingerly tread to the garden, now leaf-strewn by autumn winds…
• 2012, David Mack, Star Trek: The Next Generation — Cold Equations Book One: Persistence of Memory, chapter 28:Several gingerly taps on her console fired clusters of modified probes into the maelstrom of the gas giant’s atmosphere.

Anagrams

• niggerly