Soon means in a short time from now. See you soon. Dinner will be ready soon. The trouble is that nobody agrees how short it is, because soon from a friend means ten minutes and soon from a builder means April.
Soon has a comparative that does a great deal of the work: sooner or later he will find out, the sooner the better, no sooner had we sat down than the phone rang. I would sooner walk than wait for that bus means I would rather. Soon can ask about speed as well as time, as in how soon can you get here. And too soon marks something that arrived before you were ready for it, as when the news came too soon after the funeral.
1adverbsoonIn a short time from now.~96%
“The train will be here soon.”
2adverbearlyEarly, or quickly, especially in questions about speed.~2%
“How soon do you need an answer?”
3adverbpreferenceBy preference, in the phrases would sooner and would as soon.~2%
“I would as soon stay home as sit through that again.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 20 sentences found in the wild and placed 20 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: shortly
Soon comes from Old English sōna, and sōna did not mean soon at all. It meant immediately, at once. The word has been slowing down for a thousand years, drifting from right this second to some time shortly, while its old relatives kept the urgency, such as Old High German sār, which still meant immediately.
Proto-Indo-European
*só
Proto-Germanic
*sēna
Proto-West Germanic
*sān(ō)
Old English
sōna — immediately, at once
Middle English
sone
English, today
soon
Built from
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, from Proto-Indo-European só. Cognate with Scots sone, sune, schone (“soon, quickly, at once”), frr 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 (“immediately, soon”), from Proto-Germanic suniz (“soon”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA