Drecly
Drecly 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.
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