Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 233

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Odd-Come-Shortlys

This is another one of Grose’s definitions that I can’t add much to, but I like the phrase. He defines it as “I’ll do it one of these odd-come-shortly’s; I will do it some time or another”. The first known author to use this phrase was Jonathan Swift in the early eighteenth century, with its meaning just evolving from being one of those odd days which may come shortly where there will be time to do something.