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I read an article that used "thusly" and was wondering if there is any grammatical credence to it.

The quote:

The issue started when Sokolowski quickly ran out of storage capacity in his 32GB Surface after adding media files. After poking around, he realized that while the device has a 32GB drive, only 16GB of that capacity is available for users’ data. Thusly Microsoft is being sued for false advertisement, with the suit seeking class action status.

Is thusly an outmoded form of thus, or does it have a different meaning altogether?

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Seems to me to be an illiteracy based on the alternative forms "first/firstly, second/secondly, more important/more importantly", etc. It seems to mean "therefore" in this sentence, so "thusly" is a solecism, IMHO. – user21497 Nov 15 '12 at 6:35

1 Answer

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The Oxford English Dictionary records thusly as a colloquial form of thus, with an earliest citation of 1865. However, it is really quite unusual, and I wouldn’t recommend its use other than for some kind of special effect.

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Well, there you have it. Colloquial means conversational rather than formal spoken or written language. No one needs to be literate to be colloquial. Ergo, all colloquial language is inherently the language of the illiterate. But that doesn't make all colloquialisms solecisms. Just a bit of sophistry for entertainment. – user21497 Nov 15 '12 at 9:15

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