early

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈɜː.li/, US /ˈɝː.li/^[1]

Etymology

The adverb is inherited from Middle English erli, earlier erliche,^[2][3] inherited from Old English ǣrlīce,^[4][2][5] formed from ǣr (“soon, before”) (modern ere) and the adverb suffix -līce (-ly),^[4][2][6] probably after Old Norse árliga (“early”).^[2][6][7][8] RHWU explains ǣrlīce as a variant of ārlīce, with the vowel of ǣr.^[9] Watkins traces ǣr to Proto-Indo-European *ayer- (“day, morning”).^[10] The adjective was formed from the adverb in Middle English, also after Old Norse,^[8][6][11] though Etymonline cites an Old English adjective, ǣrlīc.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Near the beginning of a period of time, especially of the day: Old English ǣrlīce, about 950.^[2][4][8]

Semantic evolution

The adjective appears probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[2] and the spelling early only at the end of the 16th century.^[2] The word was applied to the early part of the year from 1526,^[12] to the beginning of anything from 1595,^[12] to childhood and youth (early life) from 1630,^[12] and to a date in the near future (an early reply) from 1655.^[12] Early to bed, early to rise goes back to 1496.^[13] The early bird gets the worm is first recorded in 1636 according to Word Origins^[13] and in the 1670s according to Etymonline.^[4] Early doors (1883) was first early admission to a music hall, and was revived in football in the 1970s for the early part of a match.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 950 – Old English adverb ǣrlīce.^[2]
• before 1200 – adjective (Ancrene Riwle).^[2]
• before 1382 – erli (Wycliffe Bible).^[2]
• 1496 – early to bed, early to rise.^[13]
• 1526 – early in the year.^[12]
• late 16th century – the spelling early.^[2]
• 1630 – of childhood.^[12]
• 1636 – the early bird gets the worm.^[13]
• 1655 – soon to come.^[12]
• 1883 – early doors.^[13]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Near the beginning of a period, series or process: early morning.
2. Belonging to a distant past, or to the first stage of development: early man.
3. Coming before the usual or expected time; premature.
4. Happening in the near future.

Adverb

1. Near the beginning of a period or series.
2. Before the usual or expected time.

Word family

• earliness
• earlywood
• early bird
• early blight
• early on
• early saxifrage
• early warning radar
• early warning system

Related words

• ere
• erst

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ a b c d e f Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press