Intentionally, the Latin expression ad directum came to Catalan as adret, which then purposely derived in our language. It is an adverb that is used to indicate that an action was carried out with intent; that is, it was done on purpose.
For example: “Investigators believe that the offender purposely caused the crash to generate confusion and thus be able to flee the place”, “That was a fault! He purposely hit me! ” , “I think Ramiro purposely hid information that we do not would realize his behavior”.
We can easily understand what the notion of purposely refers to if we oppose it to what is accidental. This distinction between intentional and accidental can be of great importance. Suppose, in a soccer game, a player touches the ball with his hand in the area defended by his team. If the referee considers that the player carried out the action on purpose (that is, if he believes that he touched the ball with his hand on purpose), he will charge a penalty, since he did something that is punishable in the regulations. On the other hand, if the judge thinks that the athlete did not intend to hit the ball with his hand, he will allow the play to continue without charging a foul.
Let us now take the case of a person who is upset that his neighbor listens to music at a very high volume. If you think that the subject turns up the volume without realizing that it may harm those who live nearby, it is likely that they will go to your house and ask you to please lower the music. On the contrary, if you feel that it is something purposely to make others uncomfortable, you can even denounce it for “annoying noises” so that the authorities can punish you.
In the examples above, it can be seen that the term purposely serves to describe different types of situations in which one or more people carry out certain actions consciously and voluntarily, although their consequences are not always harmful to others. In some cases, such as that of the footballer who touches the ball with his hand, the objective is to benefit from a notation that does not correspond to him, while if someone listens to music at a volume that he knows will annoy the neighbors, his intentions have a different character.
This does not mean that both situations expose a negative nuance, in that they are people who try to occupy a space that does not belong to them, achieve something that does not belong to them, be it a victory or the right to act in a certain way in middle of a neighborhood community.
On the other hand, the word purposely can serve to describe well-intentioned actions, with which the subject hopes to cause a certain effect on other people in order to obtain a benefit that he considers just, either for himself or for a third party.
Let’s look at an example to illustrate this possibility: a worker discovers that one of his colleagues steals money from the box and wants to report it to his boss, but he knows that he needs proof to do so; For that reason, he places a camera in a strategic place and leaves it on to capture the theft on video. His procedure is on purpose, but he intends to help a third party to combat an action that he considers unfair.
This concept can be expressed in various ways, and in each Spanish-speaking region we find certain differences, especially in the degree of formality associated with each of them. In addition to on purpose, therefore, it is possible to say on purpose, deliberately, willfully, intentionally, knowingly, specifically, deliberately and on purpose (an adverbial phrase from the Latin, the language in which is written ex professo).
