The following quotation is from “A study in scarlet” by Arthur Conan Doyle:
That book made me positively ill.
I know the meaning of both positively and ill, but when consolidating (combining) them I can’t figure out the meaning of the expression positively ill. I can’t even realize how can be associated two opposite (in meaning) words, but I guess is one of the particularities that English can offer.
Best Answer
There's no contradiction. In this sentence, positively doesn't have its literal meaning of "in a positive manner". Instead, it's used as an intensifier, emphasizing the following adjective ill.
When an English word is used as an intensifier, it loses its literal meaning. Originally, very meant "truly" (like verity, verify, verily, and so on), but now we can say very tasty ("tasty to a great degree"). Likewise, really meant "in reality", but now we can say really sick ("sick to a great degree").
A lot of similar words belong to this class, including awfully, absolutely, terribly, or the slang words super, way, totally, and literally.