Etimology
From Middle English first, furst, ferst, fyrst, from Old English fyrest, from Proto-West Germanic *furist, from Proto-Germanic *furistaz (“foremost, first”), superlative of Proto-Germanic *fur, *fura, *furi (“before”), from Proto-Indo-European *per-, *pero- (“forward, beyond, around”), equivalent to fore + -est. Cognate with North Frisian foarste (“first”), Dutch voorste (“foremost, first”), German Fürst (“chief, prince”, literally “first (born)”), Swedish först (“first”), Norwegian Nynorsk fyrst (“first”), Icelandic fyrstur (“first”). Other cognates include Sanskrit पूर्व (pūrva, “first”) and Russian первый (pervyj).
adjective
first (not comparable)
Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.
Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.
Of or belonging to a first family.
Coming right after the zeroth in things that use zero-based numbering.
Examples
Hancock was first to arrive.
Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 .
The first day of September 2013 was a Sunday.
I was the first runner to reach the finish line, and won the race.
Demosthenes was the first orator of Greece.
the first violinist
THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Perſons of the firſt diſtinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ſeveral new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and diſtinguiſh it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.
It rose to be the first of pastoral regions, and continued until after the gold discovery to be the land of squatterdom.
The French openings decided that satin gowns, suits, wraps and even hats were to be in first fashion this autumn.
First Cat; First Daughter; First Dog; First Son
Related words
related terms
for
fore
adverb
first (not comparable)
Before anything else; firstly.
For the first time.
(Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, nonstandard) Now.
Examples
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.
Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia.
I first witnessed a death when I was nine years old.
Related words
synonyms
See also Thesaurus:firstly
noun
first (countable and uncountable, plural firsts)
(uncountable) The person or thing in the first position.
(uncountable) The first gear of an engine.
(countable) Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.
(countable, baseball) first base
(countable, British, colloquial) A first-class honours degree.
(countable, colloquial) A first-edition copy of some publication.
(in combination) A fraction whose (integer) denominator ends in the digit 1.
Examples
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.
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.
There was a close play at first.
[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.
one forty-first of the estate
verb
first (third-person singular simple present firsts, present participle firsting, simple past and past participle firsted)
(rare) To propose (a new motion) in a meeting, which must subsequently be seconded.
Examples
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.
Etimology
From Middle English first, furst, fyrst, from Old English fyrst, fierst, first (“period, space of time, time, respite, truce”), from Proto-Germanic *frestaz, *fristiz, *frestą (“date, appointed time”), from Proto-Indo-European *pres-, *per- (“forward, forth, over, beyond”). Cognate with North Frisian ferst, frest (“period, time”), German Frist (“period, deadline, term”), Swedish frist (“deadline, respite, reprieve, time-limit”), Icelandic frestur (“period”). See also frist.
noun
first (plural firsts)
(obsolete) Time; time granted; respite.