friendlily. deadlily. timelily.
my recent use of the word "timelily" (i spelled it timelyly at first because i thought i was messing with the english language only to find out that people actually do turn -ly adjectives into adverbs but in a more fluid sounding way) instead of "in a timely manner" led me to explore adverbial phrases and how we work around awkward spellings and pronunciation.
due to the way adverbs are formed, instead of having an -ly ending as expected, some adverbs take on an -lily ending.
this happens when the base adjective form ends in -ly, leaving no choice but for regular adverbs to end -lyly, splled lily for ease of pronunciation and spelling presumably.
take our example word of timelily for example: timely is an adjective even though it may look like an adverb. for example, "her arrival was timely." the word "timely" in this sentence modifies the direct object (accusative noun) "arrival" and is therefore an adjective. "she arrived in a timely manner" on the other hand, uses an adverbial phrase. as opposed to an adverb, an adverbial phrase is a group of words that modifies a verb.
this was my first time ever giving a name to this concept because while adverbial phrases are used quite often, (e.g. "once upon a time", "in a ___ way", "in the morning/afternoon/evening", etc. many of these are prepositional phrases that modify a verb) we don't think about english grammar. like ever. never in my life have i had to diagram a sentence. get real.
anyways, instead of using an adverbial phrase, my brain decided to condense it down to one word. meet timelily, a word that is one of many -lily words that undeniably look fucked up.