soonly
English edit
Etymology edit
soon + -ly. Since the late 15th century.[1]
Adverb edit
soonly (comparative more soonly, superlative most soonly)
- (nonstandard, dialectal or slang) Soon.
- 2007, Willem Bilderdijk, Jan Bosch, M. van Hattum, Mr. W. Bilderdijk's briefwisseling, 1798-1806, page 155:
- I will entreat you, to do what's possible to finish this everlasting separation, which will kill me soonly, if not ceasing.
- 1909, Wallace Irwin, “Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy”, in Collier's, volume 42, numbers 15-26, page xxiv:
- Dakota will soonly become one of them blissful married States.
References edit
- “soonly”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- ^ Dieter Kastovsky, Studies in Early Modern English (1994, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN), page 244: Such pleonastic forms as oftenly and soonly can be found as early as the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, and must be attributed to analogy. Incidentally, Dr. Johnson includes soonly in his 1755 Dictionary, [...]