thankfully

From Middle English thankfully, thankefully, þonkfulliche, from Old English þancfullīċe, equivalent to thankful +‎ -ly.

• Audio (US):

  (file)

thankfully (comparative more thankfully, superlative most thankfully)

1. In a thankful manner; giving thanks.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     Gratiano:
     […] I owe you much, and, like a wilful youth
     That which I owe is lost; but if you please
     To shoot another arrow that self way
     Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,
     As I will watch the aim, or to find both,
     Or bring your latter hazard back again,
     And thankfully rest debtor for the first.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XIII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VIII:

     I immediately offered my assistance to the unhappy person, who thankfully accepted it, and, putting himself under my conduct, begged me to convey him to some tavern, where he might send for a surgeon […]

2. (sometimes proscribed) fortunately, gratefully.

   I was almost late for work, but thankfully there wasn't much traffic on the roads.