Brewer's: Gingerly

Cautiously, with faltering steps. The Scotch phrase, “gang that gate,” and the Anglo-Saxon gangende (going), applied to an army looking out for ambuscades, would furnish the adverb gangendelic; Swedish, gingla, to go gently.

“Gingerly, as if treading upon eggs. Cuddie began to ascend the well-known pass.” —Scott: Old Mortality, chap. xxv.

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