早

• Absolute Time: "Morning." Emphasizes the earliness of the hour, often in relation to customary or expected waking times.
• Relative Timing (Past/Present): "Early." Events occurring before their appointed or natural time.
• Relative Timing (Prospective): "Soon" or "shortly." Used in contexts of expectation regarding a desired arrival.

• Adverb: Modifying the timing of an action.
• Adjective: Describing a state of being or a quality of an object/event.
• Noun: Referring to the morning as a period of time.

• Contrast with 晨 (chén) and 旦 (dàn): While these typically denote the astronomical moment of dawn or the quality of light, 早 emphasizes earliness.
• The 早/晚 Binary: When contrasted with 晚 (wǎn, late), the glyph may shift from a temporal marker to a moral or social one; "early" frequently denotes diligence or promptness, while "late" implies sluggishness or negligence.

When modifying life or death (e.g., 早亡), distinguish between a neutral statement of an early stage and a lament for prematurity ("too soon").