6.6 Historical Evidence 185d. but they are admittedly too expensive to be of any service to the poor (1890
Booth, In darkest England [CLMET3.0])
e. Moralising on that which might have been is admittedly a sterile process
(1899– 1902 Bridge, Sea- powers and other studies [CLMET3.0])
f. Luncheon’s admittedly a movable feast, isn’t it (1901 Kingsley, The history
of Sir Richard Calmady [CLMET3.0])
(16) a. Admittedly , they were two quite different men: (1894 The Nation [COHA])
b. Admittedly the motive of the law was good, but good motives do not make
good laws. (1909 New York Times [COHA])
c. Admittedly the only reason for postponing the date of exclusion is to throw
some sort of diplomatic sop (1924/ 11/ 26 TIME)
Hanson ( 1987 : 142) sees admittedly as having subjective epistemic meanings
from its fi rst occurrence.
Interestingly, a contemporaneous use of admittedly is as a subjunct modify-
ing an adjective, as a kind of amplifi er- booster meaning ‘quite’ or ‘very’ (see
Quirk et al. 1985 : 597). While this usage is exemplifi ed in the OED, it is not
distinguished from the disjunct use:
(17) a. Both these classes of revenue are admittedly progressive (1804 Taylor,
Annual Review and History of Literature II. 318 [OED])
b. And coming from the lips of one so admittedly familiar with historical and
military science, commanded profound attention. (1851 US Democratic
Review [COHA])
c. It [a book] is admittedly desultory and inexhaustive (1865 Pall Mall Gaz.
24 May 11 [OED])
d. Few women of old family can be thoroughly taught that a fi ne soul may
wear a smock- frock, and an admittedly common man in one is but a worm
in their eyes (1873 Hardy, A pair of blue eyes [CLMET3.0])
e. Perhaps [the murderers] thought transfi xion knives nothing worse than an
improvement on the admittedly ineffi cient pikeheads of ’48. (1883 Daily
News 19 Feb. 4/ 8 [OED])
As discussed in Section 6.5.2 above, the proposed origin for disjunct adverbs
is a blend of the manner adverb and the It be Adj that construction. Admittedly
has no use as a manner adverb, i.e., with the meaning ‘in an admitted man-
ner.’ The adjective admitted (the past participle of admit ) is used in the sense
of ‘received as true or valid’ in the early seventeenth century (see OED: s.v.
admitted , adj.). The construction it be admitted (that) can be found as early as
the mid seventeenth century (as shown in 18; see also Table 6.8 ):
(18) a. Let it be admitted that ther is some yoake of Antichristian gouernment, (1591
Barrow, A plaine refutation of M. G. Giffardes reproachful booke [EEBO])
b. (although it be admitted the Members intend it a joynt power) (1648
Dallison, The royalist’s defence ([EEBO])