soon
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: enpr: so͞on
ipa: /suːn/
ipa: /sun/
rhymes: -uːn
Forms: form: sooner
form: soonest
Etymology: From Middle English sone, from Old English sōna (“immediately, at once”), from Proto-West Germanic *sān(ō), from Proto-Germanic *sēna, *sēnô (“immediately, soon, then”), from *sa (demonstrative pronoun), from Proto-Indo-European *só (demonstrative pronoun).
Cognate with Scots sone, sune, schone (“soon, quickly, at once”), North Frisian san (“immediately, at once”), dialectal Dutch zaan (“soon, before long”), Middle Low German sân (“right afterwards, soon”), Middle High German sān, son (“soon, then”), Old High German sār (“immediately, soon”). Compare also Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐍃 (suns, “immediately, soon”), from Proto-Germanic *suniz (“soon”).
Senses: glosses: Immediately, instantly.
examples: text: His wife is likely to come too after him, but we just do not know how soon after.
text: I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly,[…], down the nave to the western door.[…]At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese[…]began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated. The poisoning was irreversible, and soon ended in psychosis and death.
ref: 2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884:
glosses: Within a short time; quickly.
examples: text: How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 2:18:
text: “Been huntin’ fuh mah mule. Anybody seen ’im?” he asked.
“Seen ’im soon dis mornin’ over behind de school-house,” Lum said. “’’Bout ten o’clock or so. He musta been out all night tuh be way over dere dat early.”
ref: 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 6, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, University of Illinois Press, published 1978, page 87:
glosses: Early.
examples: text: I would as soon see a river winding through woods or in meadows, as when it is tossed up in so many whimsical figures at Versailles.
ref: 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian, number 101:
glosses: Readily; willingly; used with would, or some other word expressing will.
Synonyms: word: anon
word: betimes
word: by and by
word: directly
word: dreckley
word: early
word: eftsoons
word: hastily
word: imminently
word: just now
word: momentarily
word: presently
word: promptly
word: pronto
word: quickly
word: rear
word: shortly
word: soon
word: tidely
Hypernyms: word: subsequently
Hyponyms: word: sooner than later
word: ASAP
word: in a minute
word: PDQ
word: right away
word: toot sweet
Derived terms: a fool and his money are soon parted
anytime soon
any time soon
as soon as
as soon as look at someone
as soon as possible
eaten bread is soon forgotten
eftsoons
get well soon
just as soon as
none too soon
not a minute too soon
not a moment too soon
real soon now
you soon
soon enough
sooner or later
soonish
soonly
soon-to-be
soon to follow
soon-to-wed
Soon™
speak too soon
too soon
Related terms: word: soon kueh
word: soon kway
word: prematurely