The Sun Rising Over the Acorn

A refined ink-and-watercolour illustration of a rising sun over a misty field and a jujube tree at dawn.
The character combines the sun (日) with the concept of 'first' or the jujube tree (棗) to signify the early morning.

In the earliest bronze inscriptions, the character 早 began as a pictogram of an acorn. This original form was the ancestor of 皂 (OC *zuːʔ) and was once associated with the variant 皁, which was sometimes written as 草 (cǎo).

As the script evolved, the character's construction shifted. In late bronze inscriptions, it became a phono-semantic compound (OC *ʔsuːʔ). This version combined the semantic component 日 (“sun”) with the phonetic component 棗 (OC *ʔsuːʔ), which refers to the jujube or Chinese date. In some instances, 棗 was simplified as 朿.

By the time of the Small Seal script, the character was viewed as an ideogrammic compound. It paired 日 (“sun”) with 甲 (“first”). This combination suggests the moment when the sun first rises. This interpretation is supported by the Shuowen Jiezi, which states that the character means "morning" and is composed of 日 placed above 甲. While this explains the sense of the sun appearing at the first moment, the Shuowen's interpretation is not based on oracle bones or bronze inscriptions.

In various ancient texts, the character 蚤 (OC *ʔsuːʔ) was often used instead. It is important to note that 早 is unrelated to the ancient version of 是; in that character, the component does not represent an acorn, but a spoon.

Beyond the Chinese language, possible cognates exist in other language families. The character may be related to Proto-Hmong-Mien *ntsi̯ouˣ (“early”), which leads to White Hmong ntxov and Iu Mien nziou. It also shares similarities with Proto-Tai *ɟaːwꟲ (“early morning”), seen in Thai เช้า (cháao) and Lü ᦋᧁᧉ (tsaw²), as well as Burmese စော (cau:), meaning "early".

Explore the full etymology graph of 早 on etymfun.com.

Based on Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and the sources listed on etymfun.com; written by a local model and fact-checked statement by statement against them. Illustration generated locally.

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