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I edit legal texts written in English by non-native speakers (in Belgium). The term 'within' is used constantly when speaking of a period between a given date and the deadline for doing something , as in "this law will enter into force within 30 days of its publication in the official gazette" or "the penalty must be paid within 15 days of receipt of the notice". I have noticed that people (even in directives by the European Union in the official English version) often use "within 30 days from the date of publication" and so on.
There was a discussion on the English usage forum asking whether "within 30 days after x) was ok and most people (to my mind rightly) said no, it should be of. The discussion there had to do with whether "within x days" always means AFTER or if it could also mean BEFORE the date in question - the example was a statement that the client has to notify the service provider within 10 days of moving to the new address" and whether that could be understood as 10 days before the move. I have never thought of this issue, assuming "within x period of time" was always after the date x.
Of course an alternative is to say "must be paid at the latest 15 days after receipt of the notice" but I would still like to know if I should be correcting "within x days from" to "within x days of".
In Merriam-Webster all examples of use of within in this sense has "of".
Any thoughts?
I never liked it, but, with respect to time, 'of' has the meaning of 'before' or 'until'. This site has 'a quarter of' as its first entry in a list of time idioms.
The 3 examples you gave at top are right on target: notice from goes with a time designation, and of goes with an event (or, as often, a gerund). Not that it's wrong to switch that pairing.
But there should be little use for the sense of before in the legal and business worlds, because it would mean indulging procrastination. For instance, you want an employee to notify 2 weeks at the latest before they quit, not right up to that time.
Many medical procedures require preparation, which obviously should take place late enough, lest the required effects wear off too soon. (Anesthetic preparation is but one example). Cooking should have some uses for that before sense.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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