I think you can forget that "sooner" part. Colloquialisms are very, very, stubborn. For example, German and Dutch still have the word "ellenlang" (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ellenlang), literally "ells long", but typically used to describe durations (a long boring talk can be 'ellenlang'), even though the meter has been the unit of length for almost two centuries. Similarly, "miles long" is still in use for long, tedious or annoyingly large distances.