A correspondent complains that the adverb 'almost' is being supplanted
by 'practically'. 'The true meaning of "practically" (he writes) is
"in practice" as opposed to "in theory" or "in thought"; for instance,
_Questions which are theoretically interesting to thoughtful people
and practically to every one_, or again, _He loves himself
contemplatively by knowing as he is known and practically by loving as
he is loved._' And he finds fault with the _O.E.D._, whence he takes
his quotations, for not condemning such phrases as these, _The
application was supported by practically all the creditors_, and, _He
has been very ill but is now practically well again_.
The word is no doubt abused and intrudes everywhere. _The Times_
writes of a recent gale, _Considerable damage was done by the gale in
practically every parish in Jersey_, and again of a bridge on the
Seine that _The structure has practically been swept away_; but it
seems that in the sense of 'for practical purposes' it can be defended
as a useful word. For instance, a friend, leaving your house at night
to walk home, says, _It is full moon, isn't it?_ and you reply
_Practically_, meaning that it is full enough for his purpose. You
might say _nearabouts_ or _thereabouts_ or _sufficiently_, but you
cannot say _almost_ or _nearly_ without implying that you know the
full moon to be nearly due and not past. In such cases it might be
argued that 'practically' is truly opposed to 'theoretically', but
'actually' is rather its opposite. 'Practically' implies an undefined
margin of error which does not affect the situation.