OD

presently / / adv.
abald; see you presently: bis gleich.
b(Amer., Scot.: now) zur Zeit; derzeit

Note: it should be "increAsing"

Thank you, purist. It was a typo.

Disagree with the suggestion that "presently" *never* means "derzeit". To confirm my feeling, I just did a Google search with <"presently working"> and <"presently living"> i.e. in inverted commas, and found rather a lot of "derzeit" phrases...
Laboratories Presently Working With CURRY Software
...is presently working as a research assistant
We are presently living on Nevis
numbers of foreigners presently living in ...

"Presently", meaning "now", would seem to me, as a native English speaker in Britain, to be good, formal English, e.g.; "I am presently unable to receive telephone calls." Whether it would be considered to be "classical English" or not I could not say but for modern, formal usage it is absolutely fine in my opinion. (Backed up by a quick look at the online Cambridge dictionary of English at: dictionary.cambridge.org)

Agree with Ghol and Anonymous.

yes, it means aktuell, derzeit usw. too

Sorry, but have to disagree with Ghol, Anonymous, & Kevin. To my AE ears, presently is incorrect in the citations given. Some dictionaries I have agree with you and not with me, but I prefer this from Garner's Mod.Am. Usage:
"presently contains an ambiguity. In the days of Shakespeares, it meant "immediately." Soon its meaning evolved into "after a short time" (perhaps because people exaggerated about their promptitude). This sens is still current. Then, chiefly in AmE, it took on the additional sense "at present; currently." This use is poor, however, because it both causes the ambiguity and displaces a simpler word ('now' or, if more syllables are necessary, 'currently')"
and here several examples are given.

This puts me in the odd position of defending the original, non-American usage of the term, and Ghol (from UK) in the position of defending the 'poor' usage from AE. Go figure.

I think that you have to realise that language does evolve over time and here in the UK the use of "presently" to mean "now" is perfectly acceptable British English.

Peter, Du wirst zugeben müssen, das die von Dir vertretene Bedeutung von "presently" nicht gerade auf der Hand liegt. Der unvoreingenommene Leser, der das Wort "present" kennt, wird ganz lögisch annehmen, dass "presently" in der Bedeutung von "jetzt, derzeit" zu verstehen ist.

Insofern stimme ich Dir zu, dass die Zweideutigkeit von "presently" unbefriedigend ist, aber dann würde ich bevorzugt die Bedeutung "soon" ausrotten wollen.

Ich halte die britische Verwendung für deutlich logischer und besser.

I shall come presently, said the lover when he had passed the point of no return.

Ich muß John Rue Clegg beipflichten. Er hat recht und (alte Bauernweisheit): wer recht hat, hat recht! Und daß heute presently zunehmend statt currently verwendet wird, zeigt nur die fortschreitende Verblödung der Menschheit und wie bereitwillig das Mittelmaß als benchmark akzeptiert wird. Gruss und Kuss und nichts für ungut. Way to go, John!

Peter, ich halte es vielmehr für eine Verblödung, "presently" für "bald" zu verwenden, das widerspricht schlicht und ergreifend der Wortherkunft. Merriam Webster sagt dazu übrigens:

Main Entry: pres·ent·ly
Pronunciation: 'pre-z&nt-lE
Function: adverb
Date: 14th century
1 a archaic : at once b : before long : without undue delay
2 : at the present time : NOW
usage Both senses 1b and 2 are flourishing in current English, but many commentators have objected to sense 2. Since this sense has been in continuous use since the 15th century, it is not clear why it is objectionable. Perhaps a note in the Oxford English Dictionary (1909) that the sense has been obsolete since the 17th century in literary English is to blame, but the note goes on to observe that the sense is in regular use in most English dialects. The last citation in that dictionary is from a 1901 Leeds newspaper, written in Standard English. Sense 2 is most common in contexts relating to business and politics <the fastest-rising welfare cost is Medicaid, presently paid by the states and cities -- William Safire>

Wenn Du die Entwicklung seit dem 15 Jhdt. für eine Entglesiung der oberflächlichen und verblödeten Menschen der letzten 600 Jahre hältst, ist dein Standpunkt natürlich verständlich.

zum Thema: die fortschreitende Verblödung der Menschheit
Jürgen: nach welchen Regeln schreibst du eigentlich? Wie rechtfertigst du 'daß' und 'Gruss' im gleichen Absatz?

Sorry, I meant of course Jürgen, not Peter, don't know why I picked the wrong name... my apologies.

Where does the evidence for a link between a derogation of human intellectual capacity over time (which in itself would stand contested) and changes in the use of the word "presently" come from? Such a discussion, without proper linguistic / scientific evidence, is hardly useful and would seem to me to distract from the intended purpose of this forum.

In accord with Garner's and Meriam Webster's, the New Fowler's Modern English Usage identifies three meanings for presently: a) now, b) in a little while, soon, and c) immediately [a) and b) being current, c) archaic.] If all of us would be asked to participate in a poll with the intend to identify the most loved meaning amongst leo-forum-posters, I would vote for c), because, with its accent on the first syllable, presently comes to the point presently. Nevertheless, I'm not disconcerted by the current uses of a) and b), and suggest to keep the derzeit = presently entry in leo's database.

OL: suggest using suggest with the gerund, nix f. Ungut

thanks:-)