I, like many other English-speakers, have been unknowingly commiting the equivalant to semantic rape. For what I can only imagine to be my entire life I have been misusing the word hopefully.
The majority of English-speakers (at least those whose mother-tongue is English), hopefully is usually used unwittingly in place of “I hope” or “it is hoped”. However, this is completely wrong, as hopefully actually means “full of hope”. Which is actually so logical it hurts my chin.
Take the following sentence:
“Hopefully, it will not rain tomorrow.”
Since only living things can be full of hope, the above is wrong, and probably causes educated people to tear their own hearts out.
Stranger still is the following, which is correct:
“I went hopefully to the shops to buy a Playstation 3.”
How disappointed I was when I realised the PS3 has not been released yet.