already

Meanings

1. 1
   adv

   Before now or before a particular time.

   We had already eaten when they arrived.

2. 2
   adv

   Sooner than expected.

   Are you leaving already?

3. 3
   adv

   Used to show impatience or frustration.

   I wish they would finish already, so we can get going.

From Middle English alredy (“fully; already”), equivalent to al- (“all, completely”) + ready. Cognate with West Frisian alreeds (“already”), Dutch alreeds (“already”), Afrikaans alreeds (“already”), Middle Low German alreide, alreids ("already"; whence modern German Low German alreeds (“already”)), Danish allerede (“already”), Swedish allaredan (“already”), Norwegian Nynorsk allereie (“already”). More at all, ready. The use as an intensifier in American English is a semantic loan from Yiddish שוין (shoyn), attested from 1903. In Singapore English, the use of already as a marker of action compl…

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