why does もう mean both "already" AND "soon"? that seems contradictory

Question

saw もう食べました (already ate) and もうすぐ来ます (coming soon) and got confused about how one word covers both

Accepted Answer

It's actually the same core idea — もう marks a shift relative to expectation, and context/what follows decides the direction. もう＋past tense = the action has already crossed into completion ("already done"). もう＋すぐ or a future-leaning verb = something is right on the edge of happening ("any moment now"). Same word, but the tense/context around it tells you which side of the line you're on

Answer

oh that's a cool way to think about it, "which side of the line". thanks