已

Usage notes
This character is not to be confused with visually similar but unrelated or.

Derived characters

 * (Exception: Only for form as  contains  instead)
 * (Exception: Only for form as  contains  instead)

Glyph origin
May have originally been the same character as, a of either a snake or a fetus. This character cannot be found in the Shuowen Jiezi.

Etymology 1
Etymology not clear. The “already” sense is lexicalized from the verb “to finish; to complete”, and gradually became more common than, the older word for “already”, in the mid- to late first millennium BCE.

Definitions

 * 1) to stop; to finish
 * 2) already; have done something
 * 1) already; have done something
 * 1) already; have done something

Etymology 2
Possibly a fusion of and, explaining why the latter is never found after the former.

Etymology
From.

Affix

 * 1) already

Derived terms
May be replaced with 以 in some compounds, e.g. 已降→以降.