Comfortably means in a way that gives ease — or with room to spare. Physical comfort and a comfortable margin.
The physical sense covers sitting, sleeping and dressing, so settling comfortably into a chair is the plain use. The margin sense is where the word does most of its work in reporting, since winning comfortably, comfortably ahead and comfortably within budget all mean there was never any doubt. There is a third use about money, and living comfortably means having enough not to worry, which is a very English way of avoiding saying rich.
1adverbcomfortablyIn a way that gives physical ease.
“He was sitting comfortably by the fire.”
2adverbclearWith a clear margin, without difficulty.
“They won comfortably in the end.”
Old French
confortable
Middle English
comfortable
English
comfortable
English, today
comfortably
From comfortable + -ly. comfortable comes from Middle English comfortable, from Old French confortable, from conforter. by surface analysis, comfort + -able.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA