Green’s Dictionary of Slang

as used by Yid. speakers and those wishing to indicate Yid. speech rhythms, an intensifier indicating immediacy, even exasperation, e.g. So tell me, already.

1903		McClure’s Mag. Dec. 219/1: I tole the conductor I wanted off right away at the corner already.
1941		A. Kober My Dear Bella 138: ‘All that’s ancient history,’ heckled Miss Gershhorn. ‘Go an awready.’.
1945		A. Kober Parm Me 19: So give awready a person a gless tea.
1947		G. Kersh Prelude to a Certain Midnight Bk I Ch. iv: Drop it already! [...] I should throw out a poor woman into the streets?
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 181: What am I, an octopus already?
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 138: You’ll get broads, you won’t be able to stand up already.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 5: So look, the table too already.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 295: ‘So I’m sorry already,’ Sidney actually smiled contritely.
1996		Penguin Bk of More Aus. Jokes 196: Very quietly he said, ‘Taste it.’ ‘Orright, already. Where the hell is the spoon?’ ‘Exactly.’.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 359: After five minutes I accepted his apology and begged him to shut up already.
2002		Simon & Burns ‘The Detail’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 2 [TV script] It’s an accident, OK. Gimme a fuckin’ break already.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 189: Quit with your pie-hole already.
2010		K. Richards Life 208: Some people are going, let’s do it again, and others are going, enough already.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 146: ‘Start the car, let’s go already’.
2024		D. Swierczynski California Bear 7: Friends told her: just eat a fucking cheeseburger already.