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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab
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To: Dayuhan who wrote (3328)8/16/1999 9:42:00 AM
From: Jack Clarke  Read Replies (1) of 4711
 
Steven:

Are we to accept an obvious error simply because so many
people make it?

This is how language changes.

But with regard to presently used as a synonym for now, I don't think the two terms are synonymous, although this may eventually come to pass, and indeed Webster's offers both "before long" and "now" as definitions, as well as the archaic "at once".

To me presently means soon but not immediately, but this interpretation may reflect my own experience with Southern dialect. Southerners also use directly to mean a future event which will occur even sooner than "presently".

"I'll be there presently" signifies a longer time than "I'll be there directly."

None of this can be considered erudite or even standard American English, but that's what it sounds like to me.

Best wishes,

Jack

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