How is time implied by “at this point”? It could be “at this point in my presentation” or “at this point of the play” or even “at this point in my career”. If I want to mean “at 8:13 p.m., which is now”, it is perfectly acceptable to say “at this point in time.”
“How come?” means “How came (it)?” What’s the problem there?
Sorry, I should have made that clear: I’m from the land of the ice and snow, which naturally, knowing your Led Zep mythology, is the land(s) of the vikings, Scandinavia, where we don’t speak English, but where English is becoming close to a second language (music, film, literature, Internet, etc). We will never, however, use the word “already” as you use it, because it’s ridiculous. Ridiculous I tell you.
I wouldn’t argue with you, but my firm understanding of the word “already” is “something that has happened (probably sooner than expected)”. Telling someone to do something “already” is therefore nonsense. Of course, I’m wrong, but if you got peeves, you stick with them.
Anyways, thanks for explaining the use of the word in this context.
I don’t know how common that is outside of NYC. But then, that might just be a stereotype, similar to a Brit’s initiating a conversation with, “I say, old chap,” and departing with “Pip! Pip! Cheerio!”
My pleasure. To elaborate a little, “stop whining, already” could be construed as “you should have already stopped whining by now, so hurry up and stop.”
It’s not really formal English anyway. It’s kind of a jokey slang. I’ve always thought of it as Yiddish-English, but I don’t know whether that’s its true origin.
Doesn’t the American usage of “already” come from the versatile German/Yiddish word “schon”? (ETA as ascenray also suggests)
That word can be translated as “already” in some contexts, but it is also used in many other ways, which perhaps explains why “already” is used differently in American English than it is in other varieties of English (although, inevitably, the American usage is catching on).
I’m English and I use already in that context. Really, the time to be getting upset about this annoying usage creeping in was back in the 1960s or before.
Is the heavy use of “all set” a New England thing? I’ve lived in Pennsylvania, the DC Metro area, and Montana, and I never heard “all set” used as often as I hear it now in Boston.
No, no, and thrice no! I disagree. There are people who say it but they do sound as though they are just people who think it’s clever to copy some Americanism they have heard. OR are using it facetiously.
Oops, I mean I disagree at this point in time and at the end of the day.