gingerly

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdʒɪn.dʒəɹ.li/

Adverb

gingerly (comparative more gingerly, superlative most gingerly)

1. In a delicate and 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)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎:

     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

gingerly (comparative more gingerly, superlative most gingerly)

1. very careful or cautious.
   • 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, chapter 45:

     …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.

References

• “gingerly” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.

Anagrams

• niggerly