Soonest = as soon as

[Michael H Covarrubias]

Quoting Scot LaFaive <spiderrmonkey at HOTMAIL.COM>:
>
> Has anyone ever heard or seen "soonest" used to mean "as soon as?" I saw it
> used a few times today by someone from California, possibly a second
> language learner.
>
> Scot
>

I don't know that I've heard it but it makes sense. In some contexts wouldn't
'soonest' be almost...reasonable?

"I'll be there as soon as/[(the) soonest] I can."
"You should return them as soon as/[(the) soonest] possible."

I've certainly heard "as bestest" for "as best as".

But an awkward search for "as bestest (I|you|he|she|they|we|) (|know|can|)" gets
short of only 50 Google hits. Fewer than 20 considering repeats.

(Any good sources for search operators? I'm too daft to learn anything from the
Google help pages.)

michael

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