RealSoonNow adv.

in the near future; quickly; very soon

Often used ironically, with the sense ‘eventually; at some point’.

Fancyclopedia


SF Fandom

  • 1959 R. H. Eney Fancyclopedia II 137 page image Dick Eney bibliography

    Real Soon Now When the MSFS/DSFL was going to have: a convention, a decent fanzine, an active membership, a properly run meeting and many other fine things that didn’t quite happen. Term created by Martin Alger in 1950 to describe the excitement evident in the voice of George H Young when he spoke of the con to be held in Detroit RSN.

  • 1962 B. Pelz Menace of the LASFS (vol. 8, no. 1) 5 Apr. 1 page image Bruce Pelz

    SHAGGY #61 is supposed to be coming out Real Soon Now.

  • 1962 D. Franson Key to the Terminology of Science-Fiction Fandom 15 Donald Franson bibliography

    Real Soon Now — Fannish promise of imminent activity, now has meaning of ‘far in the future’. Capitals denote sarcasm.

  • 1966 Yandro (#161) July 4 page image

    I’ll write to her publisher RealSoonNow, but while I'm thinking about it, I’ll just note the question here, too.

  • 1970 Embelyon (#1) May 6 page image

    None of this ‘I’m going to write something realsoonnow when I have the time’.

  • 1980 Southern Fandom Confederation Handbook 4 July 15/2 page image

    There was a longish for the latest issue, #43 (Mar. 1980) which emerged with some enthusiasm to return it to regular quarterly publication RealSoonNow.

  • 1993 Anvil (#55) 1 Apr. 2/2 page image

    We got a lot of advance stuff decided, and new, bigger, updated flyers will be out RealSoonNow, and may even be included with thish.

  • 2003 AUUGN June 8/2 page image

    To supplement these invited speakers, a Call for Papers (CFP) will be made RealSoonNow, to invite submissions from others in the Open Source / Free Software community to be involved in this event.

  • 2022 SF Commentary (#110) July 11/2 page image

    What I plan on doing, RealSoonNow, is a separate letterzine (of a title yet to be determined, suggestions welcome) reprinting a selection of correspondence for the first 25 issues of the run.


Research requirements

antedating 1959

Earliest cite

Fancy II

Research History
Suggested, and most cites supplied by, Bill Mullins.

Last modified 2023-08-08 13:06:42
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.