If you have noticed closely, at times we find ourselves using the prefix "honestly" before a sentence. For example - "Honestly, this is a fine dish you have prepared". So, what is the difference between "Honestly, this is a fine dish you have prepared" and "This is a fine dish you have prepared"? I am sure there are many circumstances where one may use the term honestly as the prefix, but this post is about people using the term in situation like the one I have given above.
My cynical take is, when we give compliments, our baseline has some dishonesty built into it. When we compliment someone, we are never true to ourselves completely. We inflate our compliments by a small bit so that the other person does not feel bad. When your spouse dresses for an occasion and ask for your rating, and you say 7.5/10, how often do you exactly mean 7.5? In my opinion, often times, it only means a 6.5 or 7 and we add an extra amount to it, so your spouse feels better. But we cannot overdo it. Because saying a 10/10 might give away the obvious dishonesty. With this background, what can you do when you actually encounter a situation which warrants a 9.5/10? You say - "Honestly, this deserves a 9.5/10". If you just say, "This deserves a 9.5/10", you cannot differentiate between your usual dishonest compliments and a genuine compliment which you want to give. The prefix "honestly" is the one which differentiates that. It is required for the honest ones to stand out among our usual dishonest ones.
Honestly, .............................. Nah, I do not have anything to be honest about for now. I will return to my dishonest self.
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