早

Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Etymology

One possibility is that 早 is a pictograph of sun (日) over the horizon. However, it is also possible that 早 was originally a pictograph of a particular type of acorn. The shells of these acorns would be used to make a dark-colored dye. This color indicated the darkness before sunrise and the symbol then took on the meaning of early or fast.

Han character

早 (radical 72 日+2, 6 strokes, cangjie input 日十 (AJ), four-corner 6040₀, composition ⿱日十)

1. early
2. soon
3. morning

Derived characters

• 草 章

References

• KangXi: page 489, character 12
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 13742
• Dae Jaweon: page 850, character 9
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1483, character 6
• Unihan data for U+65E9

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Cantonese

Hanzi

早 (Yale jou2)

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Japanese

Kanji

早 (grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• On: そう (sō), さつ (satsu)
• Kun: はやい (hayai), はや (haya), さ (sa)

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Korean

Hanja

早
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 조 (revised: jo, McCune-Reischauer: cho, Yale: co)

• Name (hangeul): 일찍()

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Mandarin

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Hanzi

早 (pinyin zǎo (zao3), Wade-Giles tsao³)

simpl. and trad.

早

Adverb

早 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin zǎo)

1. (Beginning Mandarin) long ago, for a long time

Interjection

早 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin zǎo)

1. good morning

Noun

早 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin zǎo)

1. (Beginning Mandarin) (early) morning

Verb

早 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin zǎo)

1. (Beginning Mandarin) early; in advance

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Vietnamese

Han character

早 (tảo)