Word definition: already

Etimology

From Middle English alredy, alredi, equivalent to al- +‎ ready. Compare Dutch alreeds (“already”), Afrikaans alreeds (“already”), Middle Low German alreide, alreids (“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 German schon and Yiddish שוין (shoyn). In Singapore English, the use of already as a marker of action completion and change of state (i.e., perfective and inchoative aspects respectively) is analogous to Hokkien 了 (liáu), Teochew 了 (liao2) and Mandarin 了 (le).

adverb

Examples

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

Much of what he said I knew already.

Tho, when-as all things ready were aright, / The Damzel was before the Altar ſet, / Being already dead with fearful fright.

slipping then my cloaths off, I crept under the bed-cloaths, where I found the young stripling already nestled, and the touch of his warm flesh rather pleas'd than alarm'd me.

It was already dusk, and the lamps were just being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, waiting for the coming of its occupant.

Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.

Are you quitting already?

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

Enough already!

Be quiet already!

Enough already with the lack of glamour!

Synonym: liao

Win already. ― We have won.

Melt already. ― It has started to melt / It has melted.

They don’t want already. ― They don’t want it any more.

“Yah, I sign already,” my mother replied.

Cannot wait already, buay tahan already. I hope she doesn’t complain to anyone.