already








adverb

  1. by this or that time; previously; prior to or at some specified or implied time: When we came in, we found they had already arrived.
  2. now; so soon; so early: Is it noon already?
  3. Informal. (used as an intensifier to express exasperation or impatience): Let’s go already!

adverb

  1. by or before a stated or implied timehe is already here
  2. at a time earlier than expectedis it ten o’clock already?
adv.

c.1300, compound of all + ready (adj.); literally “fully ready.” Cf. Norwegian, Danish allerede “already.” Colloquial use in U.S. as a terminal emphatic (e.g. enough, already!) is attested from 1903, translating Yiddish shoyn, which is used in same sense. The pattern also is attested in Pennsylvania German and in South African.

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