Relatively means judged against something else rather than absolutely. Relatively cheap, relatively few, relatively speaking.
It is honest when the comparison is stated and slippery when it is not: relatively cheap compared with what? It is a favourite of advertising and of official statistics for that reason, and the missing half of the comparison is where the work is done.
1adverbrelativelyJudged against something else rather than absolutely.
“The exam was relatively easy compared with last year's.”
relatively is a hedge.
Proto-Indo-European
*telh₂- (bear)
Latin
relātīvus
Middle French
relatif
English
relative
English, today
relatively
Built from
From relative + -ly. relative comes from Middle French relatif, from Latin relātīvus, from Latin relātus, perfect passive participle of referō (“to carry back, to ascribe”), from re- (“again”) + ferō (“to bear or carry”). by surface analysis, relate + -ive.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA