already

Meanings

1. 1
   adv

   prior to a specified or implied time

   We already ate, but couldn't turn down dessert.

2. 2
   adv

   Prior to some specified time, either past, present, or future; by this time; previously.

   I was surprised that she hadn’t already told me the news.

3. 3
   adv

   So soon.

   Are you quitting already?

4. 4
   adv

   An intensifier used to emphasize impatience or express exasperation.

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

5. 5
   adv

   Indicates the completion of an action (whether past or hypothetical), or more generally, perfective aspect.

   You frame the picture for me already anot?

6. 6
   adv

   Marks a change in state, more or less in the same manner as the inchoative aspect.

   I don’t think he can take it already.

Etymology

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…