early vs meridian

early

adj
  • Near the start of the day. 

  • Near the start or beginning. 

  • Having begun to occur; in its early stages. 

  • At a time in advance of the usual or expected event. 

  • Arriving a time before expected; sooner than on time. 

  • Of a star or class of stars, hotter than the sun. 

adv
  • At a time before expected; sooner than usual. 

  • Soon; in good time; seasonably. 

noun
  • A shift (scheduled work period) that takes place early in the day. 

meridian

adj
  • Relating to midday or noon. 

  • Relating to a meridian (in various senses); meridional. 

noun
  • A ring or half-ring with markings in which an artificial globe is installed and may spin. 

  • In full celestial meridian: a great circle passing through the poles of the celestial sphere and the zenith for a particular point on the Earth's surface. 

  • A line passing through the poles of any sphere; a notional line on the surface of a curved or round body (in particular, an eyeball). 

  • The highest or most developed point, or most splendid stage, of something; culmination, peak, zenith. 

  • Any of the pathways on the body along which chi or qi (life force) is thought to flow and, therefore, the acupoints are distributed; especially, one of twelve such pathways associated with organs of the body. 

  • Chiefly followed by of: the middle period of someone's life, when they are at their full abilities or strength; one's prime. 

  • In full terrestrial meridian: a great circle on the Earth's surface, passing through the geographic poles (the terrestrial North Pole and South Pole); also, half of such a circle extending from pole to pole, all points of which have the same longitude. 

  • The place on the celestial meridian where it is crossed by the sun or a star at its highest point. 

verb
  • Of a celestial body: to reach its meridian. 

  • To cause an object to reach the meridian or highest point of (something). 

How often have the words early and meridian occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )