soon

From Middle English soone, sone, from Old English sōna (“immediately, at once”), 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”), Dutch dialectal 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”).

• enPR: so͞on, IPA^(key): /suːn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːn

soon (comparative sooner, superlative soonest)

1. Short in length of time from the present.

   I need the soonest date you have available.

2. (US, dialectal) early
   • 1992, W. H. Andrews: A Paul Green Reader, p 129:

     Late in the evening we arrived at Quincy where we bivouacked for the night and taken a soon start the next morning to march to the arsenal.

   • 1997, Dorothy Stanaland Samuel, ‎Taliaferro Leslie Samuel: The Samuell/Samuel Families of Tidewater Virginia, p 148:

     Got up pretty early, ate a soon breakfast, had the sulky and was about to start to Newtown when it commenced raining..

   • 2000, Laurence G. Avery: A Paul Green Reader, p 220:

     They were different from colored folks who had to be out to get a soon start.

soon (comparative sooner, superlative soonest)

1. (obsolete) Immediately, instantly.
2. Within a short time; quickly.
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

   • 2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884:

     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.

3. (now dialectal) Early.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Exodus 2:18,

     How is it that ye are come so soon to day?

   • 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, University of Illinois Press, 1978, Chapter 6, p. 87,

     “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.”

4. Readily; willingly; used with would, or some other word expressing will.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Joseph Addison

     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.

• soon at OneLook Dictionary Search
• soon in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• noos, noso-, onos, sono-

• sogn (Sappada, Sauris)

From Old High German sagēn, from Proto-Germanic *sagjaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ-. Compare Low German seggen, Dutch zeggen, English say, Danish sige, Swedish säga.

soon

1. (Timau) to say

• “soon” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

From Proto-Finnic *sooni, from Proto-Uralic *sëne. Cognates include with Finnish suoni, Mansi та̄н (tān) and Hungarian ín (“sinew”).

soon (genitive soone, partitive soont)

1. sinew

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

From French jaune.

• IPA^(key): /sɔːn/

soon

1. to be yellow