early days

E

early days (idiom)
/ˈɜːrli deɪz/

Meanings

• It is too soon to make a judgment about something.
• The beginning stage of something when it is still developing or uncertain.
• A time when it is too soon to judge results or make conclusions.
• The early period of something in the past, such as life, career, or history.

Synonyms: initial stage; beginning; early stage; infancy; outset; starting point; formative period.

Example Sentences

1. It’s still early days, so the new project hasn’t shown clear results yet.
2. The doctors said it’s early days, and they need more time to understand the condition.
3. In the early days of his career, he worked long hours for little pay.

Etymology and Origin

The idiom draws directly from the everyday understanding of the opening hours within a single day, repurposed to evoke the preliminary phase of any ongoing process, event, or undertaking where outcomes remain uncertain or premature to assess.

Country of Origin

The expression arose in England during the sixteenth century as part of the natural evolution of English phrasing to capture notions of timeliness and development.

Initial Printed Appearance

The earliest documented instance surfaces in Sir Thomas More’s A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation, first published in 1553, through the passage:

“She telleth hym then that it is but early dayes, and he shall come tyme ynough.”

Literary Progression

Later literary examples include its integration in Samuel Richardson’s 1740 novel Pamela as “‘Tis early Days with Pamela, and she does not yet think of a Husband,” followed by widespread adoption across British prose of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, where “yet” frequently reinforced implications of insufficient elapsed time for firm conclusions.

Broader Dissemination

While English varieties elsewhere long described beginnings through constructions such as “the early days of” a particular matter, the concise standalone form gained currency beyond its native shores only in the final decades of the twentieth century, reflecting gradual transatlantic and global integration into everyday discourse.

Variants

• it’s early days
• still early days
• in the early days

Days, Time

Last update: March 24, 2026 3:38 AM