early vs initial

early

adj
  • Having begun to occur; in its early stages. 

  • Near the start or beginning. 

  • Near the start of the day. 

  • 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. 

initial

adj
  • Chronologically first, early; of or pertaining to the beginning, cause or origin. 

  • Spatially first, placed at the beginning, in the first position; especially said of the first letter of a word. 

verb
  • To sign one's initial(s), as an abbreviated signature. 

noun
  • A distinguished initial letter of a chapter or section of a document. 

  • onset, part of a syllable that precedes the syllable nucleus in phonetics and phonology. 

  • The first letter of a word or a name. 

  • In plural, the first letter of each word of a person's full name considered as a unit. 

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