"by art or human skill and contrivance," early 15c.; see artificial + -ly (2).
Entries linking to artificially
artificial adj.
late 14c., "not natural or spontaneous," from Old French artificial, from Latin artificialis "of or belonging to art," from artificium "a work of art; skill; theory, system," from artifex (genitive artificis) "craftsman, artist, master of an art" (music, acting, sculpting, etc.), from stem of ars "art" (see art (n.)) + -fex "maker," from facere "to do, make" (from PIE root *dhe- "to set, put").
The earliest use in English seems to be in the phrase artificial day "part of the day from sunrise to sunset" (as opposed to the natural day of 24 hours). The meaning "made by man, contrived by human skill and labor" is from early 15c. The word was applied from 16c. to anything made in imitation of, or as a substitute for, what is natural, whether real (light, tears) or not (teeth, flowers). The meaning "fictitious, assumed, not genuine" is from 1640s; that of "full of affectation, insincere" is from 1590s.
Artificial insemination dates from 1894. Artificial intelligence "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines" was coined in 1956.
-ly 2
common adverbial suffix, forming from adjectives adverbs signifying "in a manner denoted by" the adjective, Middle English, from Old English -lice, from Proto-Germanic *-liko- (cognates: Old Frisian -like, Old Saxon -liko, Dutch -lijk, Old High German -licho, German -lich, Old Norse -liga, Gothic -leiko); see -ly (1). Cognate with lich, and identical with like (adj.).
Weekley notes as "curious" that Germanic uses a word essentially meaning "body" for the adverbial formation, while Romanic uses one meaning "mind" (as in French constamment from Latin constanti mente). The modern English form emerged in late Middle English, probably from influence of Old Norse -liga.