earliest

Earliest is the superlative form of the adjective early. It describes the first in time or order within a given context, or the most ancient occurrence that is known or established. The term is used when researchers or writers wish to identify the starting point in a sequence, such as the earliest date, the earliest evidence, or the earliest form of something.

In practice, earliest contrasts with early as a simple adverb or adjective indicating timeliness, and with earlier as the comparative form used to compare two or more times. The phrase earliest known is common in historical, archaeological, and scientific writing, signaling the earliest date or example for which evidence exists. Similarly, "earliest possible" expresses the minimum time at which something could occur.

The concept appears across disciplines: archaeologists describe the earliest settlements; paleontologists discuss the earliest fossils; historians reference the earliest surviving documents; linguists talk about the earliest attested forms of words. In everyday language, people say 'the earliest I can remember' or 'the earliest example in this dataset' to denote primacy.

Word formation: earliest is created by adding the standard superlative suffix -est to early, which itself derives from Old English and Proto-Germanic roots. The usage is highly dependent on context, but the underlying idea remains constant: something that comes before all others considered in a given scope.