already, adv.
(ɒlˈrɛdɪ, ɔːl-)
[orig. phr. all adv. = fully, + ready.]
† 1. adj. (pred. or compl.) Fully prepared, in a state of complete preparation. Obs.
| c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 1117 Wanne þay come to þe castel ȝate{revsc} Þe porter alredi was þer-ate. c 1386 Chaucer Wife's T. 169 (Harl. MS.) Al redy was his answer [other texts and ready]. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxix, And founde the basket at the grounde already. |
¶ This sense can still be traced in
| 1584 D. Powel Lloyd's Cambr. 21 A populous countrie Alreadie furnished with inhabitants. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 594 The three Scotch regiments were already in England. 1865 R. W. Dale Jew. Temple viii. (1877) 86 The preparations..are already around us. |
2. a. adv. Beforehand, in anticipation; previously to some specified time; by this time, thus early.
| [Not in Wyclif.] c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. ii. §11 The howres of the clokke ben departid by 15 degrees al-redy. 1495 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de Worde) i. i. 5 b/2 Thou arte alle redy a deuyll like to us. 1526 Tindale Rom. iii. 9 We have all redy proved. 1541 Elyot Image Govt. 96 Any more quietnesse, than I haue all readie. 1611 Bible Eccles. i. 10 It hath beene already of olde time. 1623 Heming & Condell in Shaks. Cent. Praise 145 These Playes have had their triall alreadie. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 140 ¶2, I have lost so much time already. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §25. 177 The sunbeams had already fallen upon the mountain. |
¶ Sometimes united by a hyphen to participles.
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. i. xi. 92 The first dim rudiments and already-budding germs of a nobler Era. 1862 H. Spencer First Princ. ii. ix. §77 (1875) 231 Already-fractured portions of the Earth's crust. |
b. In non-standard idiomatic uses: (
a)
U.S. [
tr. Yiddish
shoyn (also Penn. G.
schu(u)n)], in final position, to denote emphasis, exasperation, etc.; in Yiddish-influenced speech:
freq. ‘now’, as ‘Enough, already!’ [
tr. Yiddish
genug,
shoyn!]; (
b)
S. Afr. [
tr. Afrikaans
al already, yet], used finally (
esp. for emphasis) or redundantly:
freq. ‘by that time’; ‘a substandard particle marking or reinforcing {oqq}perfective{cqq}’ (Branford et al.
Agterryer, 1984).
| (a) 1903 McClure's Mag. Dec. 219/1, I tole the conductor I wanted off right away at the corner already. 1943 M. Shulman Barefoot Boy (1944) 21 ‘Yes, young man, this story has helped a great many people, and I hope it will help you.’ ‘So tell it already,’ I said. 1958 Amer. Speech XXXIII. 232 Contrast..‘He has lost his respect for her already,’ cited from Pennsylvania-German American speech..with ‘Finish up, already!’ from Jewish American speech. 1962 Ibid. XXXVII. 204 Other syntactical idiosyncrasies have been moving beyond their usual circuit—from the shoyn-inspired already, as in, ‘Enough, already!’.., which has been heard on the old Paul Winchell television show among others, to [etc.]. 1964 D. Greenburg How to be Jewish Mother (1966) 27 Give me the watermelon already. 1975 New Yorker 11 Aug. 29/1 ‘And Mrs. Orfinger?’ ‘Dead, Ma. Last year already.’ |
| (b) 1920 R. Y. Stormberg Mrs. Pieter de Bruyn 47 If I were a man and your ma was fifty-five already I should still be mad for her. 1926 E. Lewis Mantis ii. viii. 131 The baboons having their Hesperean depression already so long—time we got along. 1959 J. Meiring Candle in Wind 8 The old Baas had told her to pay for the sugar and coffee she had bought three weeks ago already! 1975 Darling (S. Afr.) 12 Feb. 119 ‘Smooching, hell,’ he grins. ‘This is the {oqq}Back to Nature{cqq} road we on already so soon.’ 1984 J. Platt et al. New Englishes vii. 123, I called you up but you weren't there already. |