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”).
soon (comparative sooner, superlative soonest)
- Short in length of time from the present.
- I need the soonest date you have available.
- (US, dialect) Early.
1992, W. H. Andrews, A Paul Green Reader, page 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, page 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, page 220:They were different from colored folks who had to be out to get a soon start.
- Used as an alternative to express 'to be going to' in the form 'to be soon to'.
- Hurry up, the wedding is soon to start!
- A new shop is soon to be opened in this street.
soon (comparative sooner, superlative soonest)
- (obsolete) Immediately, instantly.
- Within a short time; quickly.
1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC: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[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC: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.
- (now dialectal) Early.
1937, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 6, in Their Eyes Were Watching God[1], University of Illinois Press, published 1978, page 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.”
- Readily; willingly; used with would, or some other word expressing will.
1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian, number 101: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.
within a short time
- Afrikaans: binnekort
- Aghwan: 𐕒𐕡𐕚𐔼 (usi)
- Albanian: shpejt (sq)
- Arabic: قَرِيبًا (qarīban), سَرْعَانَ مَا (sarʕāna mā), سِرْعَانَ مَا (sirʕāna mā), سُرْعَانَ مَا (surʕāna mā)
- Egyptian Arabic: قريّب (ʔurayyeb)
- South Levantine Arabic: عن قريّب (ʕan ʔarīb)
- Armenian: շուտով (hy) (šutov), շուտ (hy) (šut)
- Azerbaijani: tezliklə, bu yaxınlarda
- Bashkir: тиҙҙән (tiźźən), оҙаҡламай (oźaqlamay)
- Basque: laster, laister
- Belarusian: ху́тка (xútka), ско́ра (skóra)
- Bengali: শীঘ্রই (śighroi)
- Breton: bremaik (br)
- Bulgarian: ско́ро (bg) (skóro)
- Burmese: မကြာမတင် (my) (ma.krama.tang)
- Catalan: aviat (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 不久 (zh) (bùjiǔ), 快 (zh) (kuài)
- Czech: brzy (cs), zanedlouho (cs)
- Danish: snart
- Dutch: zo (nl), spoedig (nl), binnenkort (nl), dra (nl), gauw (nl), weldra (nl) (poetic)
- Esperanto: baldaŭ (eo)
- Estonian: varsti (et), peagi
- Faroese: skjótt, brátt
- Finnish: pian (fi), kohta (fi)
- French: bientôt (fr)
- Galician: pronto (gl), logo
- Georgian: მალე (ka) (male)
- German: bald (de)
- Greek: σύντομα (el) (sýntoma), νωρίς (el) (norís)
- Ancient Greek: εὐθύς (euthús)
- Ancient: τάχα (tákha)
- Guaraní: pya'e
- Haitian Creole: talè
- Hebrew: עוֹד מְעַט ('od mĕ'at), בְּקָרוֹב (bĕqaróv), תֵּכֶף (he) (téchef)
- Hindi: जल्दी (hi) (jaldī)
- Hungarian: hamar (hu), nemsokára (hu), mindjárt (hu), hamarosan (hu), egyhamar (hu), rövidesen (hu)
- Icelandic: bráðum (is), brátt, fljótlega
- Ido: balde (io)
- Indonesian: segera (id)
- Irish: go haibéil, go luath
- Italian: presto (it), a breve (it)
- Japanese: すぐに (sugu ni), もうすぐ (mōsugu), 近々 (ja) (chikajika)
- Khmer: នៅពេលជិត ៗ នេះ (nou bpayl jeut jeut nih)
- Korean: 곧 (ko) (got), 금방 (ko) (geumbang)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: لەم نزیکە (lem nzîke)
- Northern Kurdish: aniha (ku), zû (ku)
- Lao: ໃນບໍ່ຊ້ານີ້ (nai bǭ sā nī)
- Latin: mox (la), citō
- Latvian: drīz
- Lithuanian: greitai
- Luxembourgish: geschwënn
- Macedonian: наскоро (naskoro)
- Maltese: dalwaqt
- Maori: meāke, ākuanei, wawe, takitaro, ākuara, taro
- Mapudungun: matumatu
- Mbyá Guaraní: are'ỹ'i re
- Mongolian: удахгүй (mn) (udaxgüj)
- Ngazidja Comorian: kariɓu, tsi hale
- Norman: biètaot (Guernsey)
- Northern Sami: farga
- Norwegian: snart (no)
- Occitan: aviat (oc)
- Old English: hraþe
- Old Portuguese: logo
- Persian: زود (fa) (zud), بزودی (fa) (bezudi)
- Plautdietsch: boolt
- Polish: wkrótce (pl), niedługo (pl)
- Portuguese: logo (pt), em breve (pt)
- Romani: sig
- Romanian: curând (ro)
- Russian: ско́ро (ru) (skóro), вско́ре (ru) (vskóre)
- Sanskrit: शीघ्रं (śīghraṃ), द्राक् (sa) (drāk)
- Scots: sune
- Scottish Gaelic: a dh'aithghearr, tràthail
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: у̏скоро, у̏бр̄зо
- Roman: ȕskoro (sh), ȕbr̄zo (sh)
- Slovak: skoro, čoskoro, zanedlho
- Slovene: kmálu (sl)
- Sorbian:
- Lower Sorbian: skóro
- Spanish: pronto (es), en breve
- Swedish: snart (sv)
- Tamil: விரைவில் (viraivil)
- Thai: ในไม่ช้า (nai mâi cháa), ไม่นาน (mâi naan)
- Turkish: birazdan (tr), biraz sonra; hemen (tr),yakında (tr), şimdi (tr), derhal (tr); erken (tr); seve seve, memnuniyetle (tr)
- Ukrainian: ско́ро (skóro), незаба́ром (uk) (nezabárom)
- Urdu: جلدی (jaldī)
- Vietnamese: sớm (vi), chẳng bao lâu nữa
- Vilamovian: baołd
- Volapük: suno (vo)
- Walloon: bénrade (wa)
- Welsh: yn fuan, cyn bo hir
- West Frisian: tel
- Yiddish: באַלד (bald)
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From Proto-Finnic *sooni, from Proto-Uralic *sëne. Cognates include Finnish suoni, Northern Mansi та̄н (tān) and Hungarian ín (“sinew”).
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This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!
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soon (genitive soone, partitive soont)
- vein, blood vessel
- “soon”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
- “soon”, in [ÕS] Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2018 [Estonian Spelling Dictionary] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2018, →ISBN
- soon in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)
soon
- Alternative form of zoon
1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 5, page 86:Mot w'all aar boust, hi soon was ee-teight- But with all their bravado they were soon taught
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 86