早

Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Han character

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

Derived characters

• 草 章 覃

References

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

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Chinese

simp. and trad.		早

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 早
Warring States			Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Characters in the same phonetic series (早) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
早	*ʔsuːʔ
草	*sʰuːʔ
愺	*sʰuːʔ
騲	*sʰuːʔ
皁	*zuːʔ
皂	*zuːʔ

Early bronze inscriptions: Pictogram (象形) – acorn. Original form of 皂 (OC *zuːʔ) (once also written as 草 (cǎo)). Borrowed for "morning" sense.

Late bronze inscriptions: Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *ʔsuːʔ) : semantic 日 (“sun”) + phonetic 棗 (OC *ʔsuːʔ), with 棗 sometimes simplified as 朿.

Small seal script: Ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : 日 (“sun”) + 甲 (“first”) – when the sun first rises.

In some ancient texts, 蚤 (OC *ʔsuːʔ) was often used instead.

Etymology

Possible cognate found in Proto-Hmong-Mien *ntsi̯ouˣ (“early”), whence White Hmong ntxov and Iu Mien nziou (Baxter and Sagart, 2014; Schuessler, 2007), and Proto-Tai *ɟa:wᶜ (“early morning”), whence Thai เช้า (cháao) and Lü ᦋᧁᧉ (tsaw²).

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 早

1. early; in advance; soon

   我醒得很早。  ―  Wǒ xǐng dé hěn zǎo.  ―  I woke up early.

   • 你能不能早一點來？ [MSC, trad.]
     你能不能早一点来？ [MSC, simp.]

     Nǐ néng bù néng zǎo yīdiǎn lái? [Pinyin]

     Can you be here a little earlier?

   • 請問，我今天早走一會兒行嗎？ [MSC, trad.]
     请问，我今天早走一会儿行吗？ [MSC, simp.]

     Qǐngwèn, wǒ jīntiān zǎo zǒu yīhuìr xíng ma? [Pinyin]

     Please could I leave early today?

2. long ago; for a long time

   他早走了。  ―  Tā zǎo zǒu le.  ―  He left long ago.

   • 這個變壓器已經燒毀了，早該拆換一個新的了。 [MSC, trad.]
     这个变压器已经烧毁了，早该拆换一个新的了。 [MSC, simp.]

     Zhè ge biànyāqì yǐjīng shāo huǐ le, zǎo gāi chāi huàn yī ge xīn de le. [Pinyin]

     This transformer has burnt out. It should have been replaced a long time ago.

3. (early) morning

   • 我今早沒有見到他。 [MSC, trad.]
     我今早没有见到他。 [MSC, simp.]

     Wǒ jīn zǎo méi yǒu jiàndào tā. [Pinyin]

     I didn't see him this morning.

4. good morning

   老師早！／老师早！  ―  Lǎoshī zǎo!  ―  Good morning, teacher!

5. before; in the past time

   • 現在這麼匆忙，你早幹嗎去了。 [MSC, trad.]
     现在这么匆忙，你早干吗去了。 [MSC, simp.]

     Xiànzài zhème cōngmáng, nǐ zǎo gànmá qù le. [Pinyin]

     So now you are in a hurry. What were you doing before?

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 早安 (“good morning”) [map]

Variety	Location	Words edit
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		早安, 早上好
Northeastern Mandarin	Taiwan	早安, 早
	Malaysia	早安
	Singapore	早安, 早
Southwestern Mandarin	Guilin	早晨
	Liuzhou	早晨
Cantonese	Guangzhou	早晨
	Hong Kong	早晨
	Hong Kong (Kam Tin Weitou)	早晨
	Macau	早晨
	Guangzhou (Panyu)	早晨
	Guangzhou (Huashan, Huadu)	早晨
	Guangzhou (Conghua)	早晨
	Guangzhou (Zengcheng)	早晨
	Foshan	早晨
	Foshan (Shatou, Nanhai)	早晨
	Foshan (Shunde)	早晨
	Foshan (Sanshui)	早晨
	Foshan (Mingcheng, Gaoming)	早晨
	Zhongshan (Shiqi)	早晨
	Zhuhai (Qianshan, Xiangzhou)	早晨
	Zhuhai (Shangheng, Doumen; Tanka)	早晨
	Zhuhai (Doumen)	早晨
	Jiangmen (Baisha)	早晨
	Jiangmen (Xinhui)	早晨
	Taishan	早晨
	Kaiping (Chikan)	早晨
	Enping (Niujiang)	早晨
	Heshan (Yayao)	早晨
	Dongguan	早晨
	Shenzhen (Shajing, Bao'an)	早晨
	Nanning	早晨
	Kuala Lumpur (Guangfu)	早晨
	Penang (Guangfu)	早晨
	Singapore (Guangfu)	早晨
Hakka	Meixian	恁早
	Huizhou (Huicheng Bendihua)	早晨
	Dongguan (Qingxi)	早晨
	Shenzhen (Shatoujiao)	早晨
	Zhongshan (Nanlang Heshui)	早晨
	Miaoli (N. Sixian)	恁早, 恁會早, 恁早萋
	Pingtung (Neipu; S. Sixian)	恁早
	Hsinchu County (Zhudong; Hailu)	恁早, 恁會早, 恁早萋
	Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu)	恁早, 恁早萋
	Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping)	恁早, 恁早萋
	Yunlin (Lunbei; Zhao'an)	𠢕早, 堅早
	Sabah (Bao'an)	早晨
Eastern Min	Fuzhou	早頭好
	Matsu	早安
	Singapore (Fuqing)	早頭好
Southern Min	Xiamen	𠢕早
	Quanzhou	𠢕早
	Zhangzhou	𠢕早
	Taipei	𠢕早
	Singapore (Hokkien)	𠢕早
	Manila (Hokkien)	好早起
	Pingnan (Shangdu)	早安
	Shantou	早安
	Singapore (Teochew)	𠢕早
	Wenchang	早上好
Zhongshan Min	Zhongshan (Longdu, Shaxi)	早晨
Southern Pinghua	Nanning (Tingzi)	早晨
Wu	Shanghai	儂早, 早, 早浪好, 谷貓迎
	Suzhou	早浪好
	Wuxi	早
	Ningbo	天亮好
Xiang	Quanzhou	早安

Further reading

• “Entry #2446”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2023.

(deprecated template usage)

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Japanese

Kanji

早

(First grade kyōiku kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: そう (sō, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: そう (sō, Jōyō)
• Kan’yō-on: さっ (sa', Jōyō ^†)
• Kun: はやい (hayai, 早い, Jōyō); はやまる (hayamaru, 早まる, Jōyō); はやめる (hayameru, 早める, Jōyō); さ (sa, 早)

Compounds

• 足(あし)早(ばや) (ashibaya): briskness, swift-footedness, fast-pacedness

Kanji in this term
早
はや Grade: 1
kun'yomi

Noun

早(はや) • (haya) 

1. already, now

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Korean

Hanja

早 • (jo)

• Eumhun:
  • Sound (hangeul): 조
  • Name (hangeul): 일찍
    

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

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Vietnamese

Han character

早: Hán Việt readings: tảo (子(tử)皓(hạo)切(thiết))
早: Nôm readings: tảo, chảo

1. chữ Hán form of tảo (“early; in advance”).
2. chữ Hán form of tảo (“morning”).

Compounds

Compounds

• 早禾 (tảo hòa/tảo hoà)
• 早來 (tảo lai)
• 早時 (tảo thì)
• 早晚 (tảo vãn)
• 太早 (thái tảo)