absently

adv

Etymology: Etymology tree Latin absum Latin absēnsder. Old French ausentder. Middle French absentbor. ▲ Latin absēnsbor. Middle English absent English absent Middle English -ly English -ly English absently From absent + -ly.

1. In an absent-minded or abstracted manner.

   “When he is in company he will sit absently muttering over a heap of Arabick, or in a Ciceronian attitude, declaim with all the vehemency of eloquence […]”

   “1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Phase the Fourth, Chapter 34, […] his wife, flinging a shawl round her, had come to the outer room and was listening to the man's narrative, her eyes resting absently on the luggage and the drops of rain glistening upon it.”