Doesn’t English have a word meaning the opposite of "briefly" as in this sentence:

Press the button _________.

Ilka

Press the button and hold. Maybe better as: Press and hold the button.

(You have just reminded me to have a little rant about "momentarily", I just have to decide where it goes)

I wonder if "Press the Button Firmly" might suffice. Firmly means "with some force" but implies "more than briefly" - at least the way I hear it.

John

Press (or depress) the button until (insert aural or visual cue here.)

DJ

Press the button and hold it for a moment.

Press the button and hold it for one (two, etc.) seconds.

Lots of ingenious solutions here. I was thinking of suggesting "press the button lethargically" but it doesn’t really work. Perhaps Stargzer’s solution strikes me as being the most clear and simple. So "Press and hold the button for a moment" would be understood by practically anyone.

- PW

[quote author=Ilka link=board=what;num=1055149950;start=0#0 date=06/09/03 at 05:12:30][center]...[/center]Press the button _________.

What’s the German original, Ilka ?...

Henri

The German originals are short and sweet:

Knopf lang drücken. (button long press)
Knopf kurz drücken. (button short press)

Ilka

You guys are great. Thank you all for your input. You’re a big help in a time I’m weighed down with assignments.

Here’s a little not-very-PC story as a thankyou. Warning: Don’t read if easily offended.

There are beautiful deserted islands in the middle of nowhere where the following people are stranded:

2 Italian men and 1 Italian woman
2 French men and 1 French woman
2 German men and 1 German woman
2 English men and 1 English woman
2 Japanese men and 1 Japanese woman
2 American men and 1 American woman
2 Irish men and 1 Irish woman

One month later on these absolutely stunning deserted islands in the middle of nowhere, the following things have occurred:

One Italian man killed the other Italian man for the Italian woman.

The two French men and the French woman are living happily together in a menage a trois.

The 2 German men have a strict weekly schedule of when they alternate with the German woman.

The 2 English men are waiting for someone to introduce them to the English woman.

The two American men are contemplating the virtues of suicide, while the American woman keeps on bitching about her body being her own, the true nature of feminism, how she can do everything that they can do, about the necessity of fulfillment, the equal division of household chores, how her last boyfriend respected her opinion and treated her much nicer and how her relationship with her mother is improving.  But at least the taxes are low and it is not raining.

The two Japanese men have faxed Tokyo and are waiting for instructions.

The Irish began by dividing the island into North and South and by setting up a distillery. They do not remember if sex is in the picture because it gets sort of foggy after the first few liters of coconut whiskey, but they are satisfied in that at least the English are not getting any.

_____________

Sadly, it’s missing the info on what the Canadian, Israeli, Swedish, Serbian, Swiss and New Zealand couples are doing.

[quote author=Ilka link=board=what;num=1055149950;start=0#8 date=06/13/03 at 01:50:32][center]...[/center]Sadly, it’s missing the info on what the Canadian, Israeli, Swedish, Serbian, Swiss and New Zealand couples are doing.

Surely you mean «triples» ?...

Henri

Sadly, it’s missing the info on what the Canadian, Israeli, Swedish, Serbian, Swiss and New Zealand couples are doing.

That’s easy. The Swedish men decided that, in the interests of fairness, they’d refrain from sex altogether.

The Swedish woman moved in with one of the Canadian men, leaving the other Canuck couple to pair off in peace.

The Serbians formed an underground movement to wipe out the treacherous Swiss, which succeeded, athough killing all six in the process.

The Israelis are still talking about what to do about the situation, while the New Zealanders wandered off at the beginning of the story whispering something about sheep and nobody has seen them since.

- PW

[quote author=Palewriter link=board=what;num=1055149950;start=0#10 date=06/13/03 at 09:06:07]

The Israelis are still talking about what to do about the situation, while the New Zealanders wandered off at the beginning of the story whispering something about sheep and nobody has seen them since.

Well, I guess New Zealanders are woefully misunderstood, then.   If there are three New Zealanders they will, of course, have formed a committee.

I was just re-reading through threads to see what I might have missed when I caught this thread title again.

It occurred to me that we do have an opposite for briefly, albeit in the cognitive sense—thoroughly or extensively (or perhaps expansively).

Now, physical matters are something else again.

-Tim

[quote author=Tim Ward link=board=what;num=1055149950;start=0#13 date=07/21/03 at 18:49:12]It occurred to me that we do have an opposite for briefly, albeit in the cognitive sense—thoroughly or extensively (or perhaps expansively).

The closest I come to an antonymic to the adverb «briefly» is a prepositional phrase, as exemplified by the pair :

He spoke briefly (and to the point).

He spoke at (great) length (and everybody who was not tied down left the room).

As for Ilka‘s problem, I’d opt for Stargzer‘s solution, or even more simply «Hold the button down (for x seconds, or until a light flashes, or the sky falls in)»....

Henri

length·y
(click to hear the word) (lngkth, lng-, ln-)
adj. length·i·er, length·i·est
Of considerable length, especially in time; extended: a lengthy convalescence.
Tediously long; drawn-out: a lengthy explanation.

————————————————————————————————————————
lengthi·ly adv.
lengthi·ness n.

[hr]

And in the version of the joke I knew:

The two Greek men are sleeping with each other and the Greek woman is cleaning and cooking for them.

The two English men are waiting for someone to introduce them to the English woman, and she is waiting for someone to introduce her to the American men.

The Bulgarian men took one look at the endless ocean, one look at the Bulgarian woman and started swimming.

The two Swedish men are contemplating the virtues of suicide while the woman keeps on bitching about her body being her own and the true nature of feminism. But at least it’s not snowing and the taxes are low.

The American woman has filed a law suit for sexual harrassement against both American men, and they are suing each other for libel. The woman has also become a Scientologist and is having an affair with the Bulgarian woman. One of the men has become a Bahaist and befriended the wildlife on the island, while the second has become a born-again christian and attends councelling sessions with the two Swedish men.

The first Russian man married the Russian woman and divorced her. He is the best customer of the Irish distillery.

The other Russian man made money by actually killing the Italian on contract and by arranging exit visas for the Bulgarians; with that he acquired a controlling 33.33% share in the Irish distillery including the world-wide distribution rights to the English and he hired the Greeks as sales agents. He employs both Germans as bodyguards (hence the strict schedule) both for himself and for his Russian girlfriend, and has promised the Bulgarian woman that she can become the maid of their first child. He regularly sees the Swedish woman "to learn English".

The Argentine woman is bored to death while the two Argentine men talk about soccer and about how great they are in bed.

In the mean time, the French still think they are alone on the island.

No offense intended  :)
I also know it with people from Madrid, Catalonia, Andalusia and the Basque Country, but couldn’t find equivalents that made any sense.

No offense intended  

Excellent.  :)

- PW

Strangely on subject:
Although it wouldn’t fit well in the original sentence, in some contexts one could use prolongedly.

~Silver