English Reference

Idiom

be a hundred years too early

Meaning

To be so immature and unprepared as to have no hope of achieving an accomplishment.

Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Examples

“You are a hundred years too early to lead this team.”

“He tried to argue with the experienced professor, but he was a hundred years too early to understand the complex theory.”

“The young politician proposed radical changes to the constitution, yet his colleagues felt he was a hundred years too early to grasp the gravity of the national crisis.”

Examples

simple

“You are a hundred years too early to lead this team.”

contextual

“He tried to argue with the experienced professor, but he was a hundred years too early to understand the complex theory.”

complex

“The young politician proposed radical changes to the constitution, yet his colleagues felt he was a hundred years too early to grasp the gravity of the national crisis.”

Origin

A calque of the Japanese 百年早い (hyaku-nen hayai), the expression entered English as a direct translation of the idiomatic phrase.

Key words

Related idioms

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English Reference