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first

adj
/fɜːst/UK/feːst//fɚst/US/fɚːst/CA

Etymology

From Middle English first, furst, ferst, fyrst, from Old English fyrest, from Proto-West Germanic *furist, from Proto-Germanic *furistaz (“first, foremost”), superlative of Proto-Germanic *furai, *furi (“before”), from Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- (“before”), from *per- (“before; first”), equivalent to fore + -est. Cognates Cognate with Scots first (“first”), Dutch voorste (“foremost, first”), vorst (“prince”), German Fürst (“chief, prince”, literally “first (born)”), Limburgish Vürsch (“prince”), Luxembourgish viischt (“anterior; forward”), Vilamovian fiyśt, fjəšt, fjyśt, fjyšt (“prince”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål først (“first”), Faroese and Icelandic fyrstur (“first”), Norwegian Nynorsk fyrst, først (“first”), Swedish först (“first”); also Latin prīnceps (“first, foremost; chief”), Greek παρ’ (par’), παρά (pará, “despite; less”), Mycenaean Greek 𐀞𐀫 (pa-ro, “from”), Albanian parë (“first; chief, main”), Latgalian pyrmais (“first”), Latvian pirmais (“first; foremost”), Lithuanian pirmas (“first; primary”), Bulgarian пъ́рви (pǎ́rvi), пръ́в (prǎ́v, “first”), Czech and Slovak prvý (“first”), Macedonian прв (prv), први (prvi, “first”), Polish piersy, pierwszy, pirszy (“first”), Russian пе́рвый (pérvyj, “first”), Serbo-Croatian пр̑вӣ, pȓvī (“first”), Slovene prvi (“first”), Armenian հարավ (harav, “south”), Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬎𐬭𐬎𐬎𐬀 (paᵘruua, “before, first”), Tocharian A pärwat (“first”), Tocharian B parwe (“first”), Sanskrit पूर्व (pūrva, “before”).

  1. derived from *preh₂-✻ — “before”
  2. derived from *furai✻
  3. inherited from *furistaz✻ — “first, foremost”
  4. inherited from *furist✻
  5. inherited from fyrest
  6. inherited from first

Definitions

  1. Preceding all others of a series or kind

    Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.

    • Hancock was first to arrive.
    • The first day of September 2013 was a Sunday.
    • I was the first runner to reach the finish line, and won the race.

  2. Most eminent or exalted

    Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.

    • Demosthenes was the first orator of Greece.
    • the first violinist

  3. Of or belonging to a first family.

    • First Cat; First Daughter; First Dog; First Son
  4. ›+ 13 more definitions

    1. Coming right after the zeroth in things that use zero-based numbering.

    2. Before anything else

      Before anything else; firstly.

      • Clean the sink first, before you even think of starting to cook.
      • I plunged nose first into the water.
      • That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberry picker's overalls.

    3. For the first time.

      • I first witnessed a death when I was nine years old.

    4. The person or thing in the first position.

      • He was the first to complete the course.
      • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

    5. The first gear of an engine.

    6. Something that has never happened before

      Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.

      • This is a first. For once he has nothing to say.
      • I remember other firsts: how I wussily asked her out the first time, and the first time I told her I loved her.

    7. First base.

      • There was a close play at first.

    8. A first-class honours degree.

      • [Stephen Hawking] […] would go to Cambridge, he said, if they gave him a first, and stay at Oxford if they gave him a second. He got a first.

    9. A first-edition copy of some publication.

    10. A fraction whose (integer) denominator ends in the digit 1.

      • one forty-first of the estate

    11. To propose (a new motion) in a meeting, which must subsequently be seconded.

      • This motion has been firsted and seconded. I desire to third it.
      • Sure—er—well, the motion was firsted and seconded that we kick ’em out; […]
      • Sure, Brother Severn, I second that motion. If you hadn’t got ahead of me I’d have firsted it myself.

    12. Time

      Time; time granted; respite.

    13. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for first. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA