Soonest = as soon as

[Charles Doyle]

A friend of mine (highly educated), on her telephone-answering machine, offers to return calls "at the soonest possible moment."  That's always sounded strange to me--though perfectly comprehensible.

The phrase "the soonest possible moment" gets 1,500 Google hits; "the soonest possible opportunity" gets 2,100; "the soonest possible time" gets 67,900.

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:02:52 -0400
>From: Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
>
>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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