hasn't long since

[joham]

Hi, everyone. In terms of the construction 'hasn't long since', I would very much appreciate your help:

1. He hasn't long since arrived from Iraq.
Does the sentence mean 'For a long time he hasn't arrived from Iraq' or 'He arrived from Iraq only a short time ago and hasn't been in Iraq for long'?

2. He reads so much by artificial light that I cannot understand why he hasn't long since gone totally blind.
Does the sentence mean 'I cannot understand why for a long time up until now he is able to keep his eyes in good condition while reading so much by artificial light'?

3. I am probably the only person who hasn't long since forgotten the Rabbi's book.
Does the sentence mean 'For a long time I haven't forgotten the Rabbi's book'?

 

[5jj]

1. He hasn't long since arrived from Iraq.
This one sounds unnatural to me. I take it to mean that he has recently arrived from Iraq.

2. He reads so much by artificial light that I cannot understand why he hasn't long since gone totally blind.
... why he didn't go blind a long time ago.
... why he hasn't been blind for a long time.

3. I am probably the only person who hasn't long since forgotten the Rabbi's book.
... who did not forget the book a long time ago.

Where did you find these sentences?

 

[joham]

Thanks a lot, dear moderator. I've got it now. I was confused about the construction 'hasn't long since' so I books-googled and found these sentences, among which the first was the biggest difficulty for me.

 

[joham]

Hi again, 5jj. Collins Cobuild's Usage contains this sentence 'I wondered that the porpoises had not long since gone away' . According your explanation, it should mean '...the porpoises didn't go away a long time ago'. Then did they go away later at all? Or have they been staying there? The Chinese version of the Usage translated it like 'I wondered that the porpoises went away only a short time ago'. I'm not sure whether the Chinese translation of the sentence is acceptable, because in Chinese 'They didn't go away a long time ago' may have the hidden meanings of either 'They went away recently' or 'They haven't left up to now'.

 

[5jj]

Hi again, 5jj. Collins Cobuild's Usage contains this sentence 'I wondered that the porpoises had not long since gone away' . According your explanation, it should mean '...the porpoises didn't go away a long time ago'. Then did they go away later at all? Or have they been staying there?

It is not clear from those words whether the dolphins went away later or not.

I would recommend that you do not use 'not long since' with a present/past perfect. If you ever see/hear it, you'll have to try to work out what it means from the context.