Etymology

The WGmc languages only otherwise record the comparative grade of PGmc *air-, viz. OE ǣr, OFris, OS, OHG ēr ‘before, earlier’ < *airiz, next to Go and ON which (also) have the positive form, cp. Go air ‘early’ (comp. airis), OIcel ár ‘early’. ME or < late OE ār (probably represented by late Nhb <ar>) is usually explained as an adoption from the ON positive (thus e.g. OED, MED, Luick §383.1), an interpretation reinforced by the evidence of dialect distribution (Bj., Jordan-Crook §48 Anm.4). The possibility of an unrecorded OE positive form *ār is occasionally raised as an alternative (OED2, Bj., TGD). See also are.

PGmc Ancestor

*air-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

 ár ‘early’
(ONP ár (4) (adv.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far ári, Icel ár, Norw år

OE Cognate

cp. ǣr (comp.) 'before that, soon' (etc.)

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

C1

Attestation

Spellings in <o> are widespread in ME (see LALME dot map 234; and further OED). See also are. 

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 1543; WA 3, 171, 299 etc.

Bibliography

MED er (conj.1) (5a) , OED3 or (adv.1, prep. and conj.2) (3) , HTOED , Dance or, Bj. 108, 200, SPS 73–4, 282, de Vries ár (5), Mag. ár (4), Bj-L år- (2), Orel *airi, Kroonen *airi-, DOE ǣr (adv., prep. and conj.)