• adj. 早期的；早熟的
• adv. 提早；在初期
• n. (Early)人名；(英)厄爾利

來自PIE*ayer, 早晨，詞源同ere, erstwhile. -ly, 形容詞后綴。

early

early: [OE] Broken down into its equivalent parts in modern English, early means ‘before-ly’. It was a compound formed from Old English ?r (ancestor of modern English ere ‘before’) and the adverb ending -ly, modelled probably on the parallel Old Norse form árligr. Ere itself was actually originally a comparative form, which before it was used for ‘before’ meant ‘earlier’.

Old English ?r came from prehistoric Germanic *airiz, the comparative form of *air ‘early’. Related forms in other Indo-European languages, such as Greek eri ‘in the morning’ and Avestan (the sacred form of Old Iranian) ayar? ‘day’, suggest that its underlying meaning is ‘early in the morning’.
=> ere

early (adv.)

Old English ?rlice "early," from ?r "soon, ere" (see ere) + -lice, adverbial suffix (see -ly (2)). Compare Old Norse arliga "early." The adjective is Old English ?rlic. The early bird of the proverb is from 1670s. Related: Earlier; earliest.

1. Early American weathervanes were most often cut from flat wooden boards.

美國早期的風向標大多截自平直的木板。

來自柯林斯例句

2. Ethiopia'sart springs from her early Christian as well as her Muslim heritage.

埃塞俄比亞的藝術起源于其早期的基督教和伊斯蘭教文化遺產。

來自柯林斯例句

3. A Delta II rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral early this morning.

今天一早，一枚“德爾塔”Ⅱ型火箭在卡納維拉爾角發射升空。

來自柯林斯例句

4. Two trains collided head-on in north-eastern Germany early this morning.

今天早上德國東北部兩列火車迎面相撞。

來自柯林斯例句

5. If cancers are spotted early there'sa high chance of survival.

如果癌癥在早期發現的話，存活的幾率會很高。

來自柯林斯例句