Some friends and I recently maligned the ignoramuses who say supposably when they mean supposedly.
I think I’ve secretly harbored the notion that there is no such word as supposably. I may have been encouraged in this belief by spell checkers, including the one this blog uses. However, I got to thinking that a back-formation would take me from supposably to supposable, and that is a word.
I, therefore, consulted a real book dictionary (Webster’s New Collegiate), and it confirmed my suspicions. Supposably is a word. As I presumed, it is the adverbial form of supposable, which is the adjectival form of suppose. Something is supposable if it is capable of being supposed.
The verb suppose generally takes an object; the adjective generally modifies a noun; and the adverb -- ah, that's the tricky one. It modifies anything except a noun, but usually a verb.
So --
I suppose (v.) he is dead.
His being dead is supposable (adj.).
I supposably (adv.) offer (v.) that he is dead.
OK -- it's a word, but it does not mean the same thing as nor can it be used interchangeably with supposedly.
And it is making my head hurt.
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