This week’s theme
Words with opposite or contradictory meanings

This week’s words
farouche
dinky
shifty
endsville
presently

This week’s comments
AWADmail 1012

Next week’s theme
Toponyms from England

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(PREZ-uhnt-lee)

MEANING:

adverb:
1. In a short while: soon.
2. At the present time: now.

ETYMOLOGY:

From English present, from Old French, from Latin praesent- (stem of praesens), from present participle of praeesse (to be present before others), from prae- (pre-) + esse (to be). Earliest documented use: 1385.

NOTES:

The word “presently” can mean “soon” or “now”. There’s also an archaic sense “immediately”. If all this ambiguity bothers you, I’d like you to meet Spanish mañana which can mean “morning” or “tomorrow” or “future”. Then there’s Hindi kal which can mean “yesterday” or “tomorrow”.

USAGE:

“Presently, it has 56 permanent workers and engages an average of 100 casual workers daily.”
Alberto Mario Noretti; Maphlix Trust Ghana to Employ 400 Workers; Ghanaian Times (Accra); Sep 30, 2021.

“These hills, now motionless as statues, would presently glide forward.”
Algernon Blackwood; Four Weird Tales; Good Press; 2019.

See more usage examples of presently in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: