first

The person or thing in the first position.

Adjective

  1. 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.

    Synonyms: maiden

  2. Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.
    • Demosthenes was the first orator of Greece.
    • the first violinist
    • 1784: William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c., PREFACE THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Perſons of the firſt diſtinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has...
  3. Of or belonging to a first family.
    • First Cat; First Daughter; First Dog; First Son
  4. Coming right after the zeroth in things that use zero-based numbering.

Origin

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...

Forms

firstmost 1st Ist I I. furst firste fyrst fyrste

Related

for fore

Adverb

  1. 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...
  2. For the first time.
    • I first witnessed a death when I was nine years old.

Forms

1st Ist I I. furst firste fyrst fyrste

Noun Entry 3

  1. 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. - 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for...
  2. The first gear of an engine.
  3. 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. - 2020, Jim Pace, Should We Fire God?:
  4. First base.
    • There was a close play at first.
  5. 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. - 2004, William H. Cropper, Great Physicists, page 454:
  6. A first-edition copy of some publication.
  7. A fraction whose (integer) denominator ends in the digit 1.
    • one forty-first of the estate

Forms

firsts 1st Ist I I. furst firste fyrst fyrste

Noun obsolete

  1. Time; time granted; respite.

Origin

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.

Forms

firsts

Verb

  1. 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. - 1828, Diary of Thomas Burton, Esq. Member in the Parliaments of Oliver and Richard Cromwell, from 1656 to 1659: […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn,...
    • Sure—er—well, the motion was firsted and seconded that we kick ’em out; […] - 1920, Rural Manhood, volume 11, page 241, column 1:
    • Sure, Brother Severn, I second that motion. If you hadn’t got ahead of me I’d have firsted it myself. - 1922, Grace Livingston Hill, The City of Fire, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, page 139:

Forms

firsts firsting firsted 1st Ist I I. furst firste fyrst fyrste

Related

primary primus inter pares

Derived

AI-first airman first class at first at first bluff at first blush at first glance at first hand at first sight at the first at the first brunt blink first book of first entry breadth-first search cast the first stone ceremonial first pitch chief petty officer first class cloud-first code-first come first court of first instance database-first dead first depth-first search deputy first minister