first
/fɜːst/ adjective, adverb, noun, verb, proper noun
Forms firstmost firsts firsting firsted 1st Ist I I. furst firste fyrst fyrste
- adjective Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest. “Hancock was first to arrive.”
- adjective Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest. “Demosthenes was the first orator of Greece.”
- adjective Of or belonging to a first family.
- adjective Coming right after the zeroth in things that use zero-based numbering.
- adverb Before anything else; firstly. “Clean the sink first, before you even think of starting to cook.”
- adverb For the first time. “I first witnessed a death when I was nine years old.”
- noun (uncountable) The person or thing in the first position. “He was the first to complete the course.”
- noun (uncountable) The first gear of an engine.
- noun (countable) Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence. “This is a first. For once he has nothing to say.”
- noun (countable, baseball) First base. “There was a close play at first.”
- noun (countable, UK, colloquial) A first-class honours degree.
- noun (countable, colloquial) A first-edition copy of some publication.
- noun (in combination) A fraction whose (integer) denominator ends in the digit 1. “one forty-first of the estate”
- verb (transitive, rare) To propose (a new motion) in a meeting, which must subsequently be seconded.
- noun (obsolete) Time; time granted; respite.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
maiden prime number one number 1 beginning commencement outset get-go start kickoff starting time showtime offset first base first-class honours degree first gear low gear low 1st inaugural initiative initiatory foremost world-class firstly first of all first off for the first time
Antonyms
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.
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 (pắrvi), пръ́в (prắv, “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”).
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.
* As a German surname, variant of Fürst, Furst.
* As a Jewish surname, from Yiddish פֿירשט (firsht, “prince”), a rendition of the above.
* As a Serbo-Croatian and Slovene, from the noun firšt (“prince”), a loanword from German and thus related to the above.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest; as, the first day of a month; the first year of a reign.
- adjective Foremost; in front of, or in advance of, all others.
- adverb Before any other person or thing in time, space, rank, etc.; --much used in composition with adjectives and participles.
- noun The upper part of a duet, trio, etc., either vocal or instrumental; --so called because it generally expresses the air, and has a preëminence in the combined effect.
Etymology [OE. first, furst, AS. fyrst; akin to Icel. fyrstr, Sw. & Dan. förste, OHG. furist, G. fürst prince; a superlatiye form of E. for, fore. See For, Fore, and cf. Formeer, Foremost.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “first”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details