Is there any English adverb to represent something as being genius?
Something like:
The goalkeeper avoided the goal geniusly.
(I know geniusly is not an actual word, it's just to illustrate!)
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There's an adjective with a similar (but not identical) meaning, ingenious. It looks like it's related to genius, but it's actually not. I do wonder, though, if confusion between the two has contributed to the words becoming closer in meaning over time.– user230Apr 13, 2015 at 22:49
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@snailboat I think you will find that genius and ingenious are in fact related. They had already drifted apart when they entered English in the Renaissance, and they essentially parted company when the modern sense of genius arose in the 18th century.– StoneyB on hiatusApr 13, 2015 at 23:29
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2@talles By the way, don't you mean adverb, not adjective?– StoneyB on hiatusApr 13, 2015 at 23:30
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@StoneyB Yup, my bad.– tallesApr 14, 2015 at 13:17
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2 Answers
Not really, because there's no adjective to build it on — genial, -ly has been preempted by a different meaning. You have to rewrite your sentence so you can use genius as an attributive:
The goalie made a genius move to save the point.
By the way, we would not say avoid the goal, but prevent the goal. One avoids an object or action, refrains from doing something oneself, one prevents someone else's action.
answered Apr 13, 2015 at 22:28
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I ended up doing just that, rephrasing to fit "genius" in the text. I decided to ask here just to make sure.– tallesApr 13, 2015 at 22:31
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Feels kinda natural to me thinking of an adjective for genius because my language (portuguese) has one: genialmente.– tallesApr 13, 2015 at 22:32
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'Geniously' is an adverb, not an adjective. Some adjectives end in -ly (for example, friendly), but the way you use it in the sentence clearly shows it to be an adverb.– SydneyApr 13, 2015 at 22:40
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1@talles In German they have the same form, except adjectives inflect for case/number/person. The same used to be true in English, until the effete modern practice of adding -ly to adverbs crept in. Apr 14, 2015 at 16:10
A possibility that stays very close to genius is ingeniously. It implies that it was done in an clever or inventive way.
The goalkeeper ingeniously avoided the goal.
If you want to stress skill or talent -- not just intelligence -- you could use skillfully or adeptly.
The goalkeeper skillfully avoided the goal.
If you want something in between the two, you can use brilliantly, which means it was done with great intelligence or talent.
The goalkeeper brilliantly avoided the goal.
P.S. As StoneyB said, prevented is better than avoided here.
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