KANJI: SOU SA SATSU haya (early, fast)

ASCII Art Representation:

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Character Etymology:

Sun combined with the character for cutting/openning, to give a meaning of the sun breaking through the darkness; i.e. in the early morning.

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: SOU
kun-yomi: haya(i) haya haya- haya(maru) haya(meru)

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: sa- saka sawa so wa

English Definitions:

1. SA, SOU, SATSU, haya(i): quick, fast, speedy; brisk; prompt; early; premature.
2. haya(meru): hasten, precipitate, accelerate, expedite; advance (the date).
3. hay(maru): be hasty, be rash.
4. (O)ha(you): good morning.
5. haya(sa): swiftness; being early; speed.
6. ha(ya): already, now, so soon.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 2419
Henshall: 50

Unicode Encoded Version:

早

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

早急 (soukyuu): immediately.
早口 (hayakuchi): rapid speech.
早死に (hayajini): early death.

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Ear"ly (?), adv. [OE. erli, erliche, AS. rlice; r sooner + lic like. See Ere, and Like.]

Soon; in good season; seasonably; betimes; as, come early.

Those that me early shall find me. Prov. viii. 17.

You must wake and call me early. Tennyson.

© Webster 1913.

Ear"ly, a. [Compar. Earlier (?); superl. Earliest.] [OE. earlich. . See Early, adv.]

1.

In advance of the usual or appointed time; in good season; prior in time; among or near the first; -- opposed to late; as, the early bird; an early spring; early fruit.

Early and provident fear is the mother of safety. Burke.

The doorsteps and threshold with the early grass springing up about them. Hawthorne.

2.

Coming in the first part of a period of time, or among the first of successive acts, events, etc.

Seen in life's early morning sky. Keble.

The forms of its earlier manhood. Longfellow.

The earliest poem he composed was in his seventeenth summer. J. C. Shairp.

Early English Philol. See the Note under English. -- Early English architecture, the first of the pointed or Gothic styles used in England, succeeding the Norman style in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Syn. -- Forward; timely; not late; seasonable.

© Webster 1913.