'Early English' definitions:
Definition of 'Early English'
From: GCIDE
- Early \Ear"ly\, a. [Compar. Earlier ([~e]r"l[i^]*[~e]r); superl. Earliest.] [OE. earlich. [root]204. See Early, adv.]
- 1. In advance of the usual or appointed time; in good season; prior in time; among or near the first; -- opposed to late; as, the early bird; an early spring; early fruit. [1913 Webster]
- Early and provident fear is the mother of safety. --Burke. [1913 Webster]
- The doorsteps and threshold with the early grass springing up about them. --Hawthorne. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Coming in the first part of a period of time, or among the first of successive acts, events, etc. [1913 Webster]
- Seen in life's early morning sky. --Keble. [1913 Webster]
- The forms of its earlier manhood. --Longfellow. [1913 Webster]
- The earliest poem he composed was in his seventeenth summer. --J. C. Shairp. [1913 Webster]
- Early English (Philol.) See the Note under English.
- Early English architecture, the first of the pointed or Gothic styles used in England, succeeding the Norman style in the 12th and 13th centuries.
- Syn: Forward; timely; not late; seasonable. [1913 Webster]