Drecly

One Man's Web > Thinking > Thinking Out Loud > Drecly

Drectly is a word from my childhood.  My wife remembers Drectly, but it's a word foreign to our children. "It was a mother's word," remembers my wife.  In our house, my father used it.

"When will we go?"
"Drecly."

He meant "Soon,"  "Next" or, if things were busy, "In a while."

We children knew it mean "Not now" or, "Sometime" and maybe even, "Never, if I forget."  There was always an added tonal enrichment to the word, ranging from matter-of-factness, through vagueness, and perhaps on into irritation.

It took me years to realise Drectly even had a "t" in it, so smoothly did it roll off the tongue.

I still remember my bemusement- I suppose I was seven or eight- at one of those childhood linguistic discoveries: the word is Directly.  Funny how you add meaning by dropping letters.