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First
Definitions
- 1 Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest. no-comparative
"Hancock was first to arrive."
- 2 Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest. no-comparative
"Demosthenes was the first orator of Greece."
- 3 Of or belonging to a first family. no-comparative
"First Cat; First Daughter; First Dog; First Son"
- 4 Coming right after the zeroth in things that use zero-based numbering. no-comparative
- 1 ranking above all others wordnet
- 2 serving to begin wordnet
- 3 serving to set in motion wordnet
- 4 preceding all others in time or space or degree wordnet
- 5 highest in pitch or chief among parts or voices or instruments or orchestra sections wordnet
- 1 Before anything else; firstly. not-comparable
"Clean the sink first, before you even think of starting to cook."
- 2 For the first time. not-comparable
"I first witnessed a death when I was nine years old."
- 1 before anything else wordnet
- 2 the initial time wordnet
- 3 prominently forward wordnet
- 4 before another in time, space, or importance wordnet
- 1 A surname.
- 1 The person or thing in the first position. uncountable
"He was the first to complete the course."
- 2 Time; time granted; respite. obsolete
- 3 the fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed at first of the bases in the infield (counting counterclockwise from home plate) wordnet
- 4 The first gear of an engine. uncountable
- 5 the lowest forward gear ratio in the gear box of a motor vehicle; used to start a car moving wordnet
Show 9 more definitions
- 6 Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence. countable
"This is a first. For once he has nothing to say."
- 7 an honours degree of the highest class wordnet
- 8 First base. countable
"There was a close play at first."
- 9 the first element in a countable series wordnet
- 10 A first-class honours degree. British, colloquial, countable
"[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."
- 11 the first or highest in an ordering or series wordnet
- 12 A first-edition copy of some publication. colloquial, countable
- 13 the time at which something is supposed to begin wordnet
- 14 A fraction whose (integer) denominator ends in the digit 1. countable, in-compounds, uncountable
"one forty-first of the estate"
- 1 To propose (a new motion) in a meeting, which must subsequently be seconded. rare, transitive
"This motion has been firsted and seconded. I desire to third it."
Etymology
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).
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).
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).
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).
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.
See also for "first"
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