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From: alan@idec.stc.co.uk (Alan Spreadbury)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: "Presently" ?= "Now"
Message-ID: <734@argon.idec.stc.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 20-Oct-86 04:59:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: argon.734
Posted: Mon Oct 20 04:59:18 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 22-Oct-86 06:20:53 EDT
References: <3489@utcsri.UUCP> <7234@utzoo.UUCP> <7112@boring.mcvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: alan@idec.stc.co.uk (Alan Spreadbury)
Organization: STC Technology Ltd., Stevenage, U.K.
Lines: 30


> In article <7234@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes:

>> The use of "presently" to mean "now" is a corruption arising from
>> ignorance; its proper meaning, as of some years ago, was "soon".

>But then, of course, the use of "presently" to mean "in a short while,
>soon" once was a corruption arising from sloppiness; its proper
>meaning, as of some centuries ago, was precisely what you would expect
>the adverb of "present" to mean.  This first corruption got so common
>that the original meaning survived only in certain pockets (dialects)
>of English, both in the U.K. and in America.
>
>The meaning of words in natural languages tend to shift, and this is a
>good thing in general, because it helps to keep languages tuned to ease
>of use in a shifting context.  Not all changes are beneficial; in
>particular, the first shift in meaning of "presently" did not meet an
>expressive need, but affected the orthogonal method of forming adverbs
>by appending "-ly".

On the other hand, the reversion of 'presently' to its old meaning
has left us with two words ('presently' and 'currently') with identical
meanings, and no convenient word for 'in a short while, but with no
great urgency'.

(Personally I blame our US-dominated government and media; the same
people who took away our real (10 ** 12) billions, and left us with
these little (10 ** 9) American ones :-))

Alan Spreadbury.