first

Etymology 1

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).

adj

1. Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.
   Hancock was first to arrive.
   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). 2013-08-03, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
   The first day of September 2013 was a Sunday.
   I was the first runner to reach the finish line, and won the race.
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 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.
   It rose to be the first of pastoral regions, and continued until after the gold discovery to be the land of squatterdom. 1880, S. W. Silver, Handbook for Australia & New Zealand, Co, page 146
   The French openings decided that satin gowns, suits, wraps and even hats were to be in first fashion this autumn. 1916-09-11, Anne Rittenhouse, “Dress: One-piece Frocks of Satin in Neutral Colors, With Bits of Colored Embroidery”, in The Journal and Tribune, volume 30, number 235, Knoxville, Tenn., page 6
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.

adv

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 overalls. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   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. 2013-06-29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29
2. For the first time.
   I first witnessed a death when I was nine years old.
3. (Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, nonstandard) Now.

noun

1. (uncountable) 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 an essay on conversations
2. (uncountable) The first gear of an engine.
3. (countable) 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. (countable, baseball) first base
   There was a close play at first.
5. (countable, Britain, colloquial) 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. (countable, colloquial) A first-edition copy of some publication.
7. (in combination) A fraction whose (integer) denominator ends in the digit 1.
   one forty-first of the estate

Etymology 2

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

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