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Rightfully vs Properly - What's the difference?

rightfully | properly |

As adverbs the difference between rightfully and properly

is that rightfully is in accordance with what is right or just; fairly while properly is in a proper manner.

rightfully

English

Adverb

(en adverb)
  • In accordance with what is right or just; fairly.
  • * The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. -- John Stuart Mill
  • Rightly, correctly.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.viii:
    • Ne euer will it breake, ne euer bend. / Wherefore Morddure it rightfully is hight.

    properly

    English

    Alternative forms

    * proprely

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • in a proper manner
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=December 16 , author=Denis Campbell , title=Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients' , work=Guardian citation , page= , passage=Hospitals are failing to care properly for the growing number of people with dementia, according to an NHS-funded report, which has prompted demands for big improvements to help patients.}}
  • (obsolete) individually; in one's own manner
    • Now herkenyth how I bar me properly . — Chaucer.