already

Etymology

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).

adv

1. 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.
   Much of what he said I knew already.
   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. 2013-07-20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
2. So soon.
   Are you quitting already?
3. (US) An intensifier used to emphasize impatience or express exasperation.
   I wish they'd finish already, so we can get going.
   Enough already!
   Be quiet already!
   Enough already with the lack of glamour! June 24, 1988, Liz Smith, Toledo Blade, Toledo, Ohio, page P-5