first
English[edit]
10[a], [b] | ||
← 0 | 1 | 2 → [a], [b] |
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Cardinal: one Ordinal: first, proto- Latinate ordinal: primary Adverbial: one time, once Multiplier: single, onefold Distributive: singly Collective: monad, onesome Fractional: whole Number of musicians: solo |
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /fɜːst/
- (General American) enPR: fŭrst, IPA(key): /fɝst/
- (Scotland) IPA(key): /fɪrst/, /fʌrst/
Audio (US) (file) - Hyphenation: first
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)st
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English first, furst, ferst, fyrst, from Old English fyrest, 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).
Alternative forms[edit]
Adjective[edit]
first (not comparable)
- Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.
- Hancock was first to arrive.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:
- 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.
- 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
- 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 (around $450 at today’s prices).
- The first day of September 2013 was a Sunday.
- I was the first runner to reach the finish line, and won the race.
- Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.
- 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 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 & Co, Handbook for Australia & New Zealand (page 146)
- It rose to be the first of pastoral regions, and continued until after the gold discovery to be the land of squatterdom.
- Demosthenes was the first orator of Greece.
- the first violinist
- 1784: William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c., PREFACE
- Of or belonging to a first family.
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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Adverb[edit]
first (not comparable)
- Before anything else; firstly.
- Clean the sink first, before you even think of starting to cook.
- I plunged nose first into the water.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- 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.
- 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:
- 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.
- For the first time;
- I first witnessed a death when I was nine years old.
Synonyms[edit]
- See also Thesaurus:firstly
Translations[edit]
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Noun[edit]
first (countable and uncountable, plural firsts)
- (uncountable) The person or thing in the first position.
- He was the first to complete the course.
- 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations
- 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.
- (uncountable) The first gear of an engine.
- (countable) Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.
- This is a first. For once he has nothing to say.
- (countable, baseball) first base
- There was a close play at first.
- (countable, Britain, colloquial) A first-class honours degree.
- (countable, colloquial) A first-edition copy of some publication.
- A fraction of an integer ending in one.
- one forty-first of the estate
Translations[edit]
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Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
- come first
- feet first
- first aid
- first among equals
- first and foremost
- first and last
- first class
- first come, first served
- first day cover
- first gear
- first imperative (Latin grammar)
- first lady
- First Lady
- first light
- first of all
- first of never
- first person
- first place
- first things first
- first up
- first violin
See also[edit]
Etymology 2[edit]
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[edit]
first (plural firsts)
References[edit]
- first at OneLook Dictionary Search
Anagrams[edit]
Middle English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old English fyrest, from Proto-West Germanic *furist, from Proto-Germanic *furistaz.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
first
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]
- “first, ord. num. (as adj. & n.).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- English 1-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)st
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)st/1 syllable
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *preh₂-
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