adv. [f. as prec. + -LY2.] In a fundamental manner.
† 1. From the foundation or bottom upwards, thoroughly. Obs.
1602. F. Hering, Anat., 21. Fundamentally learne the Noble Art of Physicke.
1658. A. Fox, trans. Wurtz Surg., I. iii. 7. It is undeniable, that wounds ought to be cured fundamentally, not superficially.
1662. Petty, Taxes, 27. Men cobble up old houses, until they become fundamentally irreparable.
2. In fundamental or essential matters or points, as regards fundamentals, essentially.
1628. T. Spencer, Logick, 236. To conclude this point of Connext axiomes; I hope it doth now appeare, that, they are fundamentally, and indeed no other but simple.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 110. There can be nothing more fundamentally Antichristian than it.
1701. J. Law, Counc. Trade (1751), 5. Such as fundamentally, at least understand arithmetic and accompts.
1748. Chesterf., Lett., 16 Feb. (1870). My health though not fundamentally bad, yet wanted some repairs.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. V. 125. The simple governments are fundamentally defective.
1871. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 325. Fundamentally, the [Bessemer] process consists in injecting air into the molten cast iron through a large number of small orifices, in order that the combustion of the carbon and other matters in combination may take place rapidly and uniformly.
1880. H. James, Diary of Man of Fifty, 324. I was fundamentally not the least addicted to thinking evil.
¶ 3. jocularly. At the fundament or seat.
1836. E. Howard, Rattlin, the Reefer, v. Oh! those floggings, how deceptive they were, and how much I regretted them when I came to understand the thing fundamentally.
1842. [see DEPHLOGISTICATE v. 2].