the.com/timeliness
Being right isn't enough — being right on time is the whole game.
means The quality of happening or being done at exactly the moment it's needed — not too early, not too late.
from Built from 'timely,' which goes back to Old English 'timlice' — 'tima' (time) plus the adverbial/adjectival suffix '-lic' (like, having the quality of). So at its root it just means 'time-like' — fitting its moment. The word has stayed close to that plain sense for over a thousand years; the only thing that's changed is how much we now scramble to achieve it.
- vs punctuality
- punctuality is about clocks, this is about relevance
- news value
- same fact, worthless if reported a week late
- comedy rule
- timing is the actual joke, not the words
- expiry date
- advice, apologies, and jokes all have one