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From: alan@idec.stc.co.uk (Alan Spreadbury)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Re: "Presently" ?= "Now"
Message-ID: <735@argon.idec.stc.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 22-Oct-86 04:45:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: argon.735
Posted: Wed Oct 22 04:45:23 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Oct-86 22:52:27 EDT
References: <734@argon.idec.stc.co.uk> <192@einode.UUCP>
Reply-To: alan@idec.stc.co.uk (Alan Spreadbury)
Organization: STC Technology Ltd., Stevenage, U.K.
Lines: 17

In article <192@einode.UUCP> simon@einode.UUCP (Simon Kenyon) writes:
>> 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'.
>over here, presently means what you imply it no longer means over there.
>ie to someone on hold "he'll be with you presently" (5-10 minutes :-))

Perhaps I was exaggerating slightly; most people 'over here' still use
presently to mean 'in a short while, but with no great urgency', but the
American usage (or should I say US - I don't know what the Canadian usage
is) is growing, led by the government and media.  (BTW, there a still a few
valiant souls who say 'a thousand million' when they mean 'a thousand
million' but I don't supose there are many who say 'a billion' when they
mean 'a billion' (i.e. a million million)).

Alan Spreadbury.