Notifications
Clear all

"Wholly"

3 Posts
2 Users
0 Reactions
1 Views
Posts: 0
Guest
(@Anonymous)
Joined: 1 second ago

It bugs me that when you make "sole"" into an adverb you spell it "solely", but "whole" becomes "wholly".   A while ago I rebelled and told my spell checker to start accepting "wholely".   It looks fine to me, and no one has ever challenged me on it.   But I doubt I make much of a dent.

2 Replies
Posts: 859
(@emmettredd)
Member
Joined: 18 years ago

I guess you could have told your spell checker that "solly" was acceptable. ;-|

Emmett

Reply
Posts: 0
Guest
(@Anonymous)
Joined: 1 second ago

I agree with Bob only insofar as the productive pattern is -olely and not -olly. I wouldn't choose to allow *wholely. By productive, I mean that coined adverbs from words ending in -ole would likely form the adverb in -olely.

If I were to talk about how animals walk, I might coin an adverb: "Magoo walked molely (not molly) back to his home."
If I were to talk about global spin: "Our plane's route flew polely (not polly) to Asia."
If I were to talk about method acting: "The understudy spent her entire time backstage in character, talking, moving, and thinking rolely (not rolly)."

Reply