gingerly

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The Word of the Day for May 3 is:

gingerly   \JIN-jer-lee\   adjective 
     : very cautious or careful 

Example sentence: 
     Simon held the soda bottle at arm's length after its shaky ride home on 
his bicycle and gave the cap a gingerly twist. 

Did you know? 
     Etymologists take a gingerly approach to assigning any particular origins 
to this word. While it might have come from the name of the spice, there's 
nothing concrete to back up that idea. Another conjecture is that it's related 
to an Old French word, "gensor," that meant "delicate." That's because in 16th 
century English an earlier sense of "gingerly" often referred to dancing or 
walking with dainty steps. Not till the 17th century did it change to apply to 
movements that were cautious in order to avoid being noisy or causing injury, 
and to a wary manner in handling or presenting ideas. Not too surprisingly, 
given its "-ly" ending, "gingerly" is also quite often correctly used as an 
adverb. One could thus say that "Simon gingerly twisted the cap."





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