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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: "Presently" ?= "Now"
Message-ID: <7234@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Oct-86 13:37:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.7234
Posted: Thu Oct 16 13:37:26 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Oct-86 13:37:26 EDT
References: <3489@utcsri.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 13

> I read somewhere that "presently" does not mean "now", but rather
> "soon" (as in "He'll be along presently".)  However, I still see
> everyone else use it as if it means now...

The use of "presently" to mean "now" is a corruption arising from
ignorance; its proper meaning, as of some years ago, was "soon".
However, said corruption is so common now that it is effectively
part of the language, and most dictionaries are in the business of
describing the language as it is, not as somebody thinks it should
have been.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry