Sinograph Addenda · Signs

已already · yǐ · already; to stop, be done; (而已) and that is all

already

Where it comes from

Graphically a twin of 巳, whose own picture is debated — a serpent, an unborn child — and the borrowing is old beyond tracing: 已already · yǐ · already; to stop, be done; (而已) and that is all means what is finished, done, already so. With 而and-then · ér · and, and then, but — the clause-linker it makes the classics’ favorite full stop: 而and-then · ér · and, and then, but — the clause-linker已already · yǐ · already; to stop, be done; (而已) and that is all, “and that is all.” Taught in the already chapter.

How to remember it

The curl closes on itself: already done.

In the wild