A timely rant.

When Polonius bustles up to Hamlet and says:

'My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently.'

 

Presently means now, at once. And so when Hamlet immediately starts admiring a camel-shaped cloud we know he's being annoying.

 

Nowadays, of course, presently no longer means at once but indicates some unspecified time in the not-too-distant future, like, say, when we have finished admiring that camel-shaped cloud over there.

 

But, hey, words change their meanings. Sometimes it's a help, and sometimes it causes annoyance.

 

Talking of annoyance, this is from a readersoffers.co.uk leaflet.

 

The frost-free mat works like magic. Simply place one in the bottom of your freezer...and it eliminates icy build-up. No more timely de-frosting.

 

No more what?

 

No more timely de-frosting?

 

But timely means at the right time. And, let's face it, there's never a right time to de-frost the fridge. Not if you have a life, or have ever bought a super-saver pack of frozen fish fingers, anyway.

 

No, no. It's not timely de-frosting at all, it's time-consuming de-frosting.

 

Hang on a minute, though. Now I come to think about it time-consuming is a jolly silly expression. I mean, what do we do that doesn't consume time?

 

Er...

...not de-frosting the fridge?

 

Oh dear. Have I just argued myself into getting a frost-free mat after all?

You must be joking.

Not until the sellers learn to write English I'm not.

 

Word To Use Properly Today: timely. This word used to mean early, but now it means on time - unless you sell frost-free mats, when timely means whatever you want it to mean.

 

The word time comes from the Old English tīma and is related to the Almannic zīme. It's connected to the word tide, too.