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first

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also:First

English

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EnglishWikipediahas an article on:
Wikipedia
English numbers(edit)
10
← 0 1 2 → 10 →
Cardinal:one
Ordinal:first
Abbreviated ordinal:1st
Latinate ordinal:primary
Reverse order ordinal:last
Latinate reverse order ordinal:ultimate
Adverbial:onetime,once
Multiplier:onefold
Latinate multiplier:single
Distributive:singly
Germanic collective:onesome
Collective of n parts:singlet,singleton
Greek or Latinate collective:monad
Greek collective prefix:mono-
Latinate collective prefix:uni-
Fractional:whole
Elemental:singlet,singleton
Greek prefix:proto-
Number of musicians:solo
Number of years:year

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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FromMiddle Englishfirst,furst,ferst,fyrst,fromOld Englishfyrest,fromProto-West Germanic*furist,fromProto-Germanic*furistaz(“foremost, first”),superlative ofProto-Germanic*fur,*fura,*furi(“before”),fromProto-Indo-European*per-,*pero-(“forward, beyond, around”),equivalent tofore+‎-est.

Cognate withNorth Frisianfoarste(“first”),Dutchvoorste(“foremost, first”),GermanFürst(“chief, prince”,literally“first (born)”),Swedishförst(“first”),Norwegian Nynorskfyrst(“first”),Icelandicfyrstur(“first”).

Other cognates includeSanskritपूर्व(pūrva,“first”)andRussianпервый(pervyj).

Alternative forms

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Adjective

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first(notcomparable)

  1. Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one;earliest.
    Hancock wasfirstto arrive.
    • 1897December (indicated as1898),Winston Churchill,chapter II, inThe Celebrity: An Episode,New York, N.Y.:The Macmillan Company;London:Macmillan & Co., Ltd.,→OCLC:
      Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for thefirsttime 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.
    • 2013August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”,inThe Economist,volume408,number8847:
      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. Thefirstbarrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).
    Thefirstday of September 2013 was a Sunday.
    I was thefirstrunner to reach the finish line, and won the race.
  2. Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.
    Demosthenes was thefirstorator of Greece.
    thefirstviolinist
    • 1784:William Jones,The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c.,PREFACE
      THEfavourable reception the Orrery has met with from Perſons of thefirſtdiſtinction, 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.
    • 1880,S. W. Silver,Handbook for Australia & New Zealand,Co, page146:
      It rose to be thefirstof pastoral regions, and continued until after the gold discovery to be the land of squatterdom.
    • 1916September 11, Anne Rittenhouse, “Dress: One-piece Frocks of Satin in Neutral Colors, With Bits of Colored Embroidery”, inThe Journal and Tribune,volume30,number235,Knoxville, Tenn., page 6:
      The French openings decided that satin gowns, suits, wraps and even hats were to be infirstfashion this autumn.
  3. Of or belonging to afirst family.
    FirstCat;FirstDaughter;FirstDog;FirstSon
  4. Coming right after thezerothin things that usezero-based numbering.
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Translations
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Adverb

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first(notcomparable)

  1. Before anything else;firstly.
    Clean the sinkfirst,before you even think of starting to cook.
    I plunged nosefirstinto the water.
    • 1913,Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln,chapter VIII, inMr. Pratt’s Patients,New York, N.Y., London:D[aniel] Appleton and Company,→OCLC:
      That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on itfirstwas 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.
    • 2013June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”,inThe Economist,volume407,number8842,page29:
      Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesiafirstbegan 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.
  2. For the first time.
    Ifirstwitnessed a death when I was nine years old.
  3. (Southeast Asia,Hong Kong,nonstandard)Now.[2](Can weverify(+)this sense?)
Synonyms
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Translations
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Noun

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first(countableanduncountable,pluralfirsts)

  1. (uncountable)The person or thing in the first position.
    He was thefirstto complete the course.
    • 1699,William Temple,Heads designed for an essay on conversations‎[2]:
      Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: thefirstapt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
  2. (uncountable)Thefirst gearof an engine.
  3. (countable)Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.
    This is afirst.For once he has nothing to say.
    • 2020,Jim Pace,Should We Fire God?:
      I remember otherfirsts:how I wussily asked her out the first time, and the first time I told her I loved her.
  4. (countable,baseball)first base
    There was a close play atfirst.
  5. (countable,British,colloquial)Afirst-classhonours degree.
    • 2004,William H. Cropper,Great Physicists,page454:
      [Stephen Hawking][…]would go to Cambridge, he said, if they gave him afirst,and stay at Oxford if they gave him a second. He got afirst.
  6. (countable,colloquial)A first-editioncopyof some publication.
  7. (in combination)A fraction whose (integer) denominator ends in the digit 1.
    one forty-firstof the estate
Translations
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Verb

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first(third-person singular simple presentfirsts,present participlefirsting,simple past and past participlefirsted)

  1. (rare)To propose (a new motion) in a meeting, which must subsequently be seconded.
    • 1828,Diary of Thomas Burton, Esq. Member in the Parliaments of Oliver and Richard Cromwell, from 1656 to 1659:[…],volume I, London:Henry Colburn,[…],page290:
      This motion has beenfirstedand seconded. I desire to third it.
    • 1920,Rural Manhood,volume11,page241,column 1:
      Sure—er—well, the motion wasfirstedandsecondedthat we kick ’em out;[…]
    • 1922,Grace Livingston Hill,The City of Fire,New York, N.Y.:Grosset & Dunlap,page139:
      Sure, Brother Severn, I second that motion. If you hadn’t got ahead of me I’d havefirstedit myself.

Derived terms

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Terms derived from the adjective, adverb, or nounfirst

See also

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Etymology 2

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FromMiddle Englishfirst,furst,fyrst,fromOld Englishfyrst,fierst,first(“period, space of time, time, respite, truce”),fromProto-Germanic*frestaz,*fristiz,*frestą(“date, appointed time”),fromProto-Indo-European*pres-,*per-(“forward, forth, over, beyond”).Cognate withNorth Frisianferst,frest(“period, time”),GermanFrist(“period, deadline, term”),Swedishfrist(“deadline, respite, reprieve, time-limit”),Icelandicfrestur(“period”).See alsofrist.

Noun

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first(pluralfirsts)

  1. (obsolete)Time;time granted;respite.

References

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  • “first”,inOneLook Dictionary Search.
  1. ^Dobson, E. J.(1957)English pronunciation 1500-1700‎[1],second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford:Clarendon Press,published1968,→OCLC,§ 82,page572.
  2. ^Nury Vittachi (2002) “From Yinglish to sado-mastication”, in Kingsley Bolton, editor,Hong Kong English: Autonomy and Creativity,Hong Kong University Press, page213:“Another word with what is apparently a direct translation is the word 'first', which is 'sin' in Cantonese. The two words do seem to have largely identical meanings, except 'sin' also carries the meaning 'now'.”

Anagrams

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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FromOld Englishfyrest,fromProto-West Germanic*furist,fromProto-Germanic*furistaz.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key):/first/,/furst/,/fɛrst/

Adjective

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first

  1. first

Descendants

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  • English:first
  • Scots:first,furst
  • Yola:vursth,vurst,virst,vrist

References

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Old English

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Noun

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firstm

  1. Alternative form offierst

Scots

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Scots numbers(edit)
10
1 2 → 10 →
Cardinal:ane
Attributive:ae
Ordinal:first

Etymology

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InheritedfromMiddle Englishfirst,fromOld Englishfyrest,fromProto-West Germanic*furist,fromProto-Germanic*furistaz.

Adjective

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first

  1. first

References

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