Somewhen, Anywhen, Nowhen

Morning everyone, hope you all had a good weekend! First things first, I have been sending these daily for over a month now (my first outing was March 30th, can you believe) and I have decided to dial down the frequency because I have some actual work to do. I know. I'm surprised too. I've started to do a weekly microstory for Mezrab in Amsterdam (you can see the first one here - I'm at 22.26 but the whole show is fun to watch - NB the actual show itself doesn't start until about 14 minutes in) plus a few other stories here and there, and as I mentioned before I have started working on a new novel which is demanding increasing amounts of my attention. Also oh look, just in the corner of my vision is a gigantic mountain of admin which I kind of thought I could ignore because surely it doesn't count in lockdown? So don't be worried if you hear less from me. I have not gone over a cliff. Anyway less is more, as somebody once said who had never eaten cheese.  Meanwhile, right in the middle of me writing this, a friend of mine texted me a reply to my question 'When is Thursday?' with the answer 'it's somewhen this week (or next)' which OH MY GOD AMAZING WORD. So it turns out that 'somewhen' is a real word that has fallen out of use. According to this excellent grammar blog, it was most popular in the 19th century - see for example this usage in George Meredith's novel The Egoist (1879): "'I'll debate on it with Willoughby.' 'This afternoon?' 'Somewhen, before the dinner bell. I cannot tie myself to the minute-hand of the clock, my dear child.'" The definition of 'somewhen' is 'at some indeterminate point in the future' and it stands alongside other 'when' words that have also fallen from use, such as 'anywhen' and 'nowhen'.  Somewhen, Anywhen, Nowhen. Are they not the exact 'whens' that we are living in now? Are we not all untethered from the minute-hand of the clock? These are the words for our time! I propose a revival of somewhen, anywhen and nowhen - use them today! Or just somewhen. Or anywhen. Or nowhen.

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