Right? This is the first time I’ve heard this word used like this in my life, and I’m fairly well read and educated. Like I don’t doubt it is grammatically correct, but in my opinion, a writer’s job is to communicate effectively - especially in a news article. Because using the word like this caused general confusion among the readers, it is a failed communication.
I think they may have meant “severely”
I thought so at first as well, but it’s an actual word.
Right? This is the first time I’ve heard this word used like this in my life, and I’m fairly well read and educated. Like I don’t doubt it is grammatically correct, but in my opinion, a writer’s job is to communicate effectively - especially in a news article. Because using the word like this caused general confusion among the readers, it is a failed communication.
It’s apparently more commonly used in legal documents - explains why we haven’t encountered it before.
Yeah you’ll often see it when co-signing a loan for example, where both parties are “both jointly and severally responsible” for the loan.