# first
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /fɜːst/
* (General American) enPR: fŭrst, IPA: /fɝst/
* (Scotland) IPA: /fɪrst/, /fʌrst/
* (Local Dublin) IPA: /fʊːɹs/
* (Canada) IPA: [fɚːst], [fəɹst]
* (Early Modern) IPA: /fɪrst/, /fʊrst/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Hyphenation: first
* Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)st

### 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).

#### Alternative forms

* 1st, Ist; I, I. (in names of monarchs and popes)
* firste (archaic)
* fyrst, fyrste (obsolete)

#### Adjective

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: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.
    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.
** 1880, S. W. Silver, Handbook for Australia & New Zealand, Co, page 146:It rose to be the first of pastoral regions, and continued until after the gold discovery to be the land of squatterdom.
** 1916 September 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:The French openings decided that satin gowns, suits, wraps and even hats were to be in first fashion this autumn.
* Of or belonging to a first family.
    First Cat; First Daughter; First Dog; First Son
* Coming right after the zeroth in things that use zero-based numbering.

##### Related terms

* for
* fore

##### Translations

Abkhaz: актәи (akʼtʷʼi)
Adyghe: апэрэ (apɛrɛ)
Afrikaans: eerste (af)
Aghwan: 𐕚𐔴𐕙𐔱𐔰𐕒𐕡𐕎 (serbaun)
Albanian: parë (sq)
American Sign Language: 1@Side-PalmForward 1@Side-PalmBack
Amharic: አንደኛ (ʾändäña)
Arabic: أَوَّل (ar) m (ʔawwal), أُولَى f (ʔūlā)
Egyptian Arabic: أول m (ʔawwil)
Armenian: առաջին (hy) (aṙaǰin)
Assamese: পহিলা (pohila), প্ৰথম (prothom)
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܩܲܕ݇ܡܵܝܵܐ m (qamāyā), ܩܲܕ݇ܡܵܝܬܵܐ m (qamāytā)
Asturian: primeru (ast)
Azerbaijani: birinci (az), ilk
Bashkir: беренсе (berense)
Basque: lehenengo (eu)
Belarusian: пе́ршы (be) (pjéršy)
Bengali: প্রথম (bn) (prothom), আউয়াল (bn) (auẏal), পহেলা (bn) (pohela)
Bhojpuri: पहिला (pahilā)
Breton: kentañ (br)
Bulgarian: пъ́рви (bg) (pǎ́rvi)
Burmese: ပထမ (my) (pa.hta.ma.)
Buryat: нэгэдэхи (negedexi)
Carpathian Rusyn: пе́ршый (péršŷj), пе́рвый (pérvŷj)
Catalan: primer (ca) m
Cebuano: una
Chamicuro: mashapulista
Chechen: хьалхара (ḥʳalxara)
Cherokee: ᎢᎬᏱᎢ (igvyii)
Chinese:
Cantonese: 第一 (dai$^6$ jat$^1$), 最初 (zeoi$^3$ co$^1$)
Hakka: 第一 (thi-yit)
Hokkien: 第一 (zh-min-nan) (tē-it)
Mandarin: 第一 (zh) (dìyī), 最初 (zh) (zuìchū)
Chuukese: aewin
Chuvash: пӗрремӗш (pĕrremĕš)
Classical Nahuatl: ic ce
Crimean Tatar: birinci, sipti
Czech: první (cs)
Dalmatian: prein
Danish: første (da)
Dhivehi: އެއްވަނަ (evvana)
Dolgan: маӈнайгы (maŋnaygı)
Dutch: eerst (nl)
Egyptian: (tpj)
Esperanto: unua (eo)
Estonian: esimene (et)
Evenki: элэкэсипты (ələkəsipti)
Faroese: (of many) fyrsti, (of two) fyrri
Finnish: ensimmäinen (fi)
French: premier (fr), -unième (used in compounds)
Friulian: prin
Gagauz: birinci
Galician: primeiro (gl)
Ge'ez: ቀዳሚ (ḳädami)
Georgian: პირველი (ṗirveli)
German: erster (de), erste (de)
Gothic: 𐍆𐍂𐌿𐌼𐌰 (fruma)
Greek: πρώτος (el) (prótos)
Ancient: πρῶτος (prôtos), πρώτιστος (prṓtistos) (poetic, Koine)
Doric: πρᾶτος (prâtos)
Guaraní: ypy
Gujarati: પહેલું (pahelũ)
Haitian Creole: premye
Hawaiian: mua
Hebrew: רִאשׁוֹן (he) m (rishón)
Hindi: पहला (hi) (pahlā), प्रथम (hi) (pratham), पहिला (hi) (pahilā), अव्वल (hi) (avval), प्रारंभिक (hi) (prārambhik)
Hungarian: első (hu)
Icelandic: fyrstur m
Ido: unesma (io)
Indonesian: pertama (id), perdana (id), kesatu (id)
Ingrian: ensimäin
Interlingua: prime
Irish: aonú, céad (ga)
Istriot: preîmo
Italian: primo (it)
Japanese: 第一 (ja) (daiichi), 最初 (ja) (saisho), 初めて (ja) (hajimete), 初 (ja) (hatsu), 一番目 (ichibanme)
Jeju: 쳇차 (chetcha)
Kabyle: amezwaru, amenzu
Kalmyk: негдгч (negdgç)
Kannada: ಒಂದನೆಯ (ondaneya)
Karakhanid: اِلْكْ (ilk)
Kazakh: бірінші (kk) (bırınşı)
Khakas: пастағы (pastağı), пірінӌі (pìrìncì)
Khmer: ទីមួយ (tii muəy)
Konkani: पयलें (paylẽ)
Korean: 첫째 (ko) (cheotjjae), 첫 번째 (cheot beonjjae), 제일(第一) (ko) (jeil), 최초(最初) (ko) (choecho)
Kunigami: 初 (ぱちー, pachī)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: یەکەم (yekem)
Northern Kurdish: yekem (ku), yekemîn (ku)
Kyrgyz: биринчи (ky) (birinci)
Ladin: prim, prum
Lakota: t’oka, t’okeya, t’okaheya
Lao: ທີ່ນຶ່ງ (thī nưng), ທີ່ໜຶ່ງ (thī nưng), ທີ່ຫນຶ່ງ (thī nưng)
Latgalian: pyrmais
Latin: prīmus (la)
Latvian: pirmais (lv), pirmā
Lithuanian: pìrmas (lt)
Livonian: ežmi
Louisiana Creole French: prémiyé, prinmiyé
Low German:
German Low German: ȩrst- (definite neuter singular: ȩrste), eerst (nds)
Luxembourgish: éischt (lb)
Macedonian: прв (prv)
Malay: pertama (ms)
Malayalam: ഒന്നാം (ml) (onnāṁ)
Maltese: l-ewwel
Manchu: ᡝᠮᡠᠴᡳ (emuci), ᡠᠵᡠᡳ (ujui), ᡠᠵᡠ (uju), ᠪᠣᠩᡤᠣ (bonggo)
Manx: kied, yn chied
Maori: tuatahi, te tahi
Marathi: पहिला (pahilā), पहिली (pahilī), पहिले (pahile)
Mirandese: purmeiro
Miyako: 初 (ぱつぃ, patsï)
Mongolian: анхдугаар (anxdugaar), анхны (anxny), (less commonly used) нэгдүгээр (mn) (negdügeer), нэгдэх (mn) (negdex)
Nahuatl: achtoquetl
Nanai: бонго (boŋo)
Navajo: łáaʼii góneʼ, áłtsé
Norman: preunmyi
North Frisian:
Föhr-Amrum, Hallig: iarst
Helgoland: iáárs
Mooring: jarst
Sylt: jest
Northern Amami Ōshima: 初 (はつぃ, hatsï)
Northern Sami: vuosttaš
Norwegian:
Bokmål: første (no)
Nynorsk: første, fyrste
Occitan: primièr (oc)
Okinawan: 初 (はち, hachi)
Old Church Slavonic: прьвъ (prĭvŭ)
Old English: forma, ǣrest
Old Frisian: forma, ērosta
Old Prussian: pirmas
Old Turkic: 𐰃𐰠𐰚 (il²k /⁠ilk⁠/)
Ossetian: фыццаг (fyccag)
Pali: paṭhama
Pashto: لومړی (ps) (lumṛay)
Pennsylvania German: erscht
Persian: اولین (fa) (avvalin), اول (fa) (avval), یکمین (fa) (yekomin), یکم (fa) (yekom), نخستین (fa) (noxostin), نخست (fa) (noxost)
Plautdietsch: ieescht
Polish: pierwszy (pl)
Portuguese: primeiro (pt)
Punjabi: ਪਹਿਲਾ (pahilā)
Quechua: hukñiqin
Romagnol: prèm
Romani: jekhto
Romanian: prim (ro)
Romansch: emprim, emprem
Russian: пе́рвый (ru) (pérvyj)
Sanskrit: प्रथम (sa) (prathamá)
Sardinian: primmu, primu
Scots: first
Scottish Gaelic: a' chiad, a' cheud
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: први
Roman: prvi (sh)
Shor: паштапқы, пиринчи
Sicilian: primu (scn)
Sindhi: پهريون m (pahariyōn), پهرِين f
Sinhalese: පළමු (si) (paḷamu)
Slovak: prvý (sk)
Slovene: pŕvi (sl)
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: prědny
Upper Sorbian: prěni
Southern Altai: биринчи (birinči), баштапкы (baštapkï)
Spanish: primer (es)
Swahili: -a kwanza
Swedish: förste (sv) (in front of a noun designating a male), första (sv) (in front of other nouns), först (sv) (if no noun after)
Sylheti: ꠚꠂꠟꠣ (fóila)
Tagalog: una (tl)
Tajik: аввал (tg) (avval), якум (yakum)
Tamil: முதல் (ta) (mutal)
Tatar: беренче (berençe)
Telugu: మొదటి (te) (modaṭi), ఒకటవ (te) (okaṭava), ప్రథమము (te) (prathamamu)
Thai: ที่หนึ่ง (tîi-nʉ̀ng)
Tibetan: དང་པོ། (dang po)
Tigre: ቀዳም (ḳädam)
Tigrinya: ቀዳማይ (ḳädamay)
Tocharian B: parwe, pärweṣṣe
Tooro: okubanza
Tupinambá: ypy
Turkish: birinci (tr), evvel (tr) (obsolescent), ilk (tr)
Turkmen: birinji (tk)
Tuvan: бирги (birgi), баштайгы (baştaygı)
Ukrainian: пе́рший (uk) (péršyj)
Urdu: پہلا (pahlā), اوّل (avval), اولین (avvalīn), یکم (yakam), نخست (nuxust), نخستین (nuxustīn)
Uyghur: بىرىنچى (birinchi)
Uzbek: birinchi (uz)
Venetan: primo (vec)
Vietnamese: thứ nhất, đầu tiên (vi)
Votic: esimein
Walloon: prumî (wa) m, prumire (wa) f, -ey-ininme m or f (used in compounds)
Waray-Waray: siyahan, una, primero
Welsh: cyntaf (cy)
West Frisian: earst (fy), foarst
Written Oirat: ᠨᡅᡎᡄᡑᡉᡍᡔᡅ (nigedüxci)
Yaeyama: 初 (ぱつぃ, patsï)
Yagnobi: якум (yakum)
Yakut: биирис (biiris), маҥнайгы (mañnaygı)
Yiddish: ערשט (ersht)
Yoruba: àkọ́kọ́, kìíní
Yucatec Maya: yáax :

#### Adverb

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[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC: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.
* (Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, nonstandard) Now. (Can we verify this sense?)

##### Synonyms

* See also Thesaurus:firstly

##### Translations
#### Noun

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.
** 2020, Jim Pace, Should We Fire God?:I remember other firsts: how I wussily asked her out the first time, and the first time I told her I loved her.
* (countable, baseball) first base
    There was a close play at first.
* (countable, British, colloquial) A first-class honours degree.
** 2004, William H. Cropper, Great Physicists, page 454:[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.
* (countable, colloquial) A first-edition copy of some publication.
* (in combination) A fraction whose (integer) denominator ends in the digit 1.
    one forty-first of the estate

##### Translations
#### Verb

first (third-person singular simple present firsts, present participle firsting, simple past and past participle firsted)
* (rare) To propose (a new motion) in a meeting, which must subsequently be seconded.
** 1828, Diary of Thomas Burton, Esq. Member in the Parliaments of Oliver and Richard Cromwell, from 1656 to 1659: […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 290:This motion has been firsted and seconded. I desire to third it.
** 1920, Rural Manhood, volume 11, page 241, column 1:Sure—er—well, the motion was firsted and seconded that we kick ’em out; […]
** 1922, Grace Livingston Hill, The City of Fire, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, page 139:Sure, Brother Severn, I second that motion. If you hadn’t got ahead of me I’d have firsted it myself.

#### Derived terms

* 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
* director of first impressions
* double first
* double first cousin
* eighty-first
* error of the first kind
* face first
* facefirst
* feetfirst
* feet-first
* feet first
* fifty-first
* fifty-first state
* first aid
* first-aid box
* first-aider
* first-aid kit
* first aid kit
* first among equals
* first and foremost
* first and last
* first angle projection
* first annual
* first art
* first article
* first baseman
* first basing
* first best
* first bite free
* first blood
* firstborn
* first-born
* first call
* first catch your hare
* first cause
* first chair
* first-chance exception
* first choice
* first-chop
* first citizen
* first city
* first-class citizen
* first-class continuation
* first-class entity
* first-class, first class
* first class match
* first-class object
* first-class value
* first come, first served
* first-come-first-served
* first come first served
* firstcomer
* first conditional
* first contact
* first cosmic velocity
* first cousin
* first cousin once removed
* first cousin thrice removed
* first cousin twice removed
* first cranial nerve
* first-day cover, first day cover
* first death
* first declension
* first-degree
* first-degree burn
* first-degree murder
* first-degree relative
* first dibs
* first digit
* first division
* first down
* first eleven
* firster
* first e-rights
* first estate
* first-ever
* first exit time
* first fiddle
* first fifteen
* first finger
* first-fit
* first five-eighth
* first flight
* first flight cover
* first floor
* first flush
* first folio
* first-foot
* first footing
* first-footing
* first freedom rights
* First French Empire
* firstfruit
* first fruits
* first fundamental form
* first gear
* first-generation
* first gentleman
* first grade
* first grader
* first-half
* first half
* first hand
* firsthand
* first-hand
* First Happy Time
* first hit time
* firsthood
* firstie
* first imperative (Latin grammar)
* first impression
* first in first out
* first inversion
* First Island Chain
* first island chain
* first lady
* First Lady
* first language
* first leg
* first lieutenant
* first light
* first-line
* firstling
* first loser
* first love
* firstly
* first mate
* first mile
* first milk
* first minister
* First Month
* first mover
* first-mover disadvantage
* first name
* firstness
* first night
* first-nighter
* first normal form
* first notice day
* first of all
* first off
* first officer
* first-of-its-kind
* first of never
* first olive out of the bottle
* first olive out of the jar
* first-order
* first-order hold
* first-order logic
* first order of the day
* first-order spectrum
* first order stream
* first palatalization
* first-party
* first party
* first-party logistics
* first-passage time
* first passage time
* first past the post
* first-person
* first person
* first-personal
* first-person dual
* first-person plural
* first-person shooter
* first-person singular
* first philosophy
* first place
* first point of Aries
* first point of Cancer
* first point of Capricorn
* first point of Libra
* first port of call
* first position
* First Presidency
* first principle
* first principles
* first quarter
* first rain
* first rate
* first-rate
* first reader
* first reading
* first receiver
* first responder
* first return time
* firstripe
* first-sale doctrine
* first sale doctrine
* first school
* First Sea Lord
* first sergeant
* first session
* first shift
* first slip
* Firstspace
* first strike
* first-string
* first string
* first-stringer
* first success distribution
* first team
* first-teamer
* first thing
* first things first
* first time
* first-time
* first-time buyer
* first-timer
* first touch
* first truth
* first unit
* first up
* first violin
* first violinist
* first watch
* first water
* first-wave feminism
* first-waver
* first woman
* first world problem
* first year
* first-year
* forty-first
* from first to last
* from the first
* get to first base
* half-first cousin
* half first cousin
* have the first idea
* head first
* head-first
* headfirst
* Healey's first law of holes
* health is your first wealth
* if at first you don't succeed
* interfirst
* in the first instance
* in the first place
* ladies first
* last in first out
* let he who is without sin cast the first stone
* let him that is without sin cast the first stone
* let him who is without sin cast the first stone
* local-first
* love at first sight
* make the first move
* mobile-first
* model-first
* murder in the first degree
* Newton's first law
* ninety-first
* no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy
* no plan survives first contact with the enemy
* nose-first
* not have the first idea
* not if I see you first
* not one's first rodeo
* on a first-name basis
* on first-name terms
* party of the first part
* people-first language
* perpetual motion machine of the first kind
* petty officer first class
* pinch and a punch for the first of the month
* play first fiddle
* private first class
* right of first refusal
* safety first
* sergeant first class
* seventy-first
* shoot first and ask questions later
* single-first cousin
* sixty-first
* splendid first strike
* standfirst
* tender-first
* the first step is always the hardest
* the first turn of the screw pays all debts
* there's a first time for everything
* thirty-first
* time first
* to a first approximation
* touch-first
* twenty-first
* webfirst
* what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive
* what was your first clue
* who's on first
* women and children first

#### See also

* primary
* primus inter pares

### 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

first (plural firsts)
* (obsolete) Time; time granted; respite.

### References

* “first”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* ↑ Dobson, E. J. (1957) English pronunciation 1500-1700‎, second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 82, page 572.
* ↑ Nury Vittachi (2002) “From Yinglish to sado-mastication”, in Kingsley Bolton, editor, Hong Kong English: Autonomy and Creativity, Hong Kong University Press, page 213: “Another word with what is apparently a direct translation is the word 'first', which is 'sin' in Cantonese. The two words do seem to have largely identical meanings, except 'sin' also carries the meaning 'now'.”

### Anagrams

* FTIRs, SIRTF, frist, frits, rifts

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* ferst, furst, fyrst
* frist, frust, frost, frest (metathetic)
* virst, vurst, vorst, verst (Southern)

### Etymology

From Old English fyrest, from Proto-West Germanic *furist, from Proto-Germanic *furistaz.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /first/, /furst/, /fɛrst/

### Adjective

first
* first

#### Descendants

* English: first
* Scots: first, furst
* Yola: vursth, vurst, virst, vrist

#### References

* “first, ord. num. (as adj. & n.).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

## Old English
### Noun

first m
* Alternative form of fierst

## Scots
### Etymology

Inherited from Middle English first, from Old English fyrest, from Proto-West Germanic *furist, from Proto-Germanic *furistaz.

### Adjective

first
* first

### References

* “first, a.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 21 May 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
* “first, adj.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 21 May 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.