already (English)

Where does "already" come from?

The word 'already' evolved from the Middle English 'alredy,' a combination of 'al' (all, completely) and 'ready.' This construction has deep Germanic roots, with cognates appearing across various West and North Germanic languages like Dutch, Swedish, and Danish. Over time, its usage expanded through semantic borrowing; for instance, its role as an impatient intensifier in American English was influenced by the Yiddish 'shoyn,' while its function as a marker of completed action in Singapore English draws parallels to similar grammatical markers in Sinitic languages like Hokkien and Mandarin.

Full etymology tree

• already (English), 'Prior to some specified time, either past, present, or future; by this time; previously.'
  • compound al- (Middle English)
    • inherited æl (Old English), 'awl, hook, fork'
      • inherited *al (Proto-West Germanic), 'awl'
        • inherited *alaz (Proto-Germanic), 'awl'
          • inherited *h₁ólos (Proto-Indo-European), 'awl'
  • compound redy (Middle English), 'ready'
    • inherited rǣde (Old English), 'ready, prompt, prepared; ready to ride, mounted (on a horse)'
      • inherited *garaidijaz (Proto-Germanic), 'alternative form of *garaidaz'
        • inherited *raidaz (Proto-Germanic), 'ready, arranged, prepared'
          • inherited *h₂reh₁dʰ- (Proto-Indo-European)
          • influence *reydʰ- (Proto-Indo-European)
  • influence שוין (shoyn) (Yiddish), 'already'

Direct ancestors

• alredy (Middle English)
• al- (English)
• ready (English)
• שוין (Yiddish)
• alreeds (Dutch)
• allerede (Danish)
• allaredan (Swedish)
• allereie (Norwegian Nynorsk)

Updated July 2026

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris