PRACTICALLY
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.