Meaning

adjective with extreme care or delicacy; ; - W.S.White

adverb in a gingerly manner

originThe second element is -ly; the first element may be Anglo-Norman gençur or Old French gençor, gensor, comparative forms (also attested as positives) of gent (“beautiful, noble, pleasant, courteous”). The Oxford English Dictionary notes, however, that there is a gap of a few centuries between the last appearance of gençor, etc., and the first appearance of gingerly. The adjective is derived from…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0