first in Middle English

IPA: /first/, /furst/, /fɛrst/ [Show additional information ▼] [Hide additional information ▲]

Etymology: From Old English fyrest, from Proto-West Germanic *furist, from Proto-Germanic *furistaz. Etymology templates: {{inh|enm|ang|fyrest}} Old English fyrest, {{inh|enm|gmw-pro|*furist}} Proto-West Germanic *furist, {{inh|enm|gem-pro|*furistaz}} Proto-Germanic *furistaz Head templates: {{head|enm|adjective||{{{1}}}||{{{2}}}||{{{3}}}|head=}} first, {{enm-adj}} first Forms: ferst [alternative], furst [alternative], fyrst [alternative], frist [alternative], frust [alternative], frost [alternative], frest [alternative], virst [alternative, Southern], vurst [alternative, Southern], vorst [alternative, Southern], verst [alternative, Southern]

Noun

Alternative forms

[Show JSON for postprocessed kaikki.org data shown on this page ▼] [Hide JSON for postprocessed kaikki.org data shown on this page ▲]

{
  "descendants": [
    {
      "lang": "English",
      "lang_code": "en",
      "word": "first"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Scots",
      "lang_code": "sco",
      "word": "first"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Scots",
      "lang_code": "sco",
      "word": "furst"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Yola",
      "lang_code": "yol",
      "word": "vursth"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Yola",
      "lang_code": "yol",
      "word": "vurst"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Yola",
      "lang_code": "yol",
      "word": "virst"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Yola",
      "lang_code": "yol",
      "word": "vrist"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "fyrest"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English fyrest",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "gmw-pro",
        "3": "*furist"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *furist",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "gem-pro",
        "3": "*furistaz"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Germanic *furistaz",
      "name": "inh"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Old English fyrest, from Proto-West Germanic *furist, from Proto-Germanic *furistaz.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ferst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "furst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fyrst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "frist",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "frust",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "frost",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "frest",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "virst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Southern"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "vurst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Southern"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "vorst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Southern"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "verst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Southern"
      ]
    }
  ],
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        "7": "",
        "8": "{{{3}}}",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "first",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "first",
      "name": "enm-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Middle English",
  "lang_code": "enm",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "first"
      ],
      "id": "en-first-enm-adj-p5N7ZLjK",
      "links": [
        [
          "first",
          "first#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/first/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/furst/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/fɛrst/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "first"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "noun",
        "altform": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "first",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Middle English",
  "lang_code": "enm",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "thirst"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Southern Middle English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 93",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Middle English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "alternative form of thirst"
      ],
      "id": "en-first-enm-noun-eGEOz08D",
      "links": [
        [
          "thirst",
          "thirst#Middle_English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Southern) alternative form of thirst"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Southern",
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "first"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "categories": [
    "Middle English adjectives",
    "Middle English alternative forms",
    "Middle English entries with incorrect language header",
    "Middle English lemmas",
    "Middle English terms derived from Old English",
    "Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic",
    "Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic",
    "Middle English terms inherited from Old English",
    "Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic",
    "Middle English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic",
    "Pages with 4 entries",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "descendants": [
    {
      "lang": "English",
      "lang_code": "en",
      "word": "first"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Scots",
      "lang_code": "sco",
      "word": "first"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Scots",
      "lang_code": "sco",
      "word": "furst"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Yola",
      "lang_code": "yol",
      "word": "vursth"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Yola",
      "lang_code": "yol",
      "word": "vurst"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Yola",
      "lang_code": "yol",
      "word": "virst"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Yola",
      "lang_code": "yol",
      "word": "vrist"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
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        "2": "ang",
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      "expansion": "Old English fyrest",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "gmw-pro",
        "3": "*furist"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *furist",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "gem-pro",
        "3": "*furistaz"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Germanic *furistaz",
      "name": "inh"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Old English fyrest, from Proto-West Germanic *furist, from Proto-Germanic *furistaz.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ferst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "furst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fyrst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "frist",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "frust",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "frost",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "frest",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "virst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Southern"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "vurst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Southern"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "vorst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Southern"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "verst",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "Southern"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "first",
      "name": "head"
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    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "first",
      "name": "enm-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Middle English",
  "lang_code": "enm",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "first"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "first",
          "first#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/first/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/furst/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/fɛrst/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "first"
}

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    "Middle English entries with incorrect language header",
    "Pages with 4 entries",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
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      "expansion": "first",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Middle English",
  "lang_code": "enm",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "thirst"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "Southern Middle English"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "alternative form of thirst"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "thirst",
          "thirst#Middle_English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Southern) alternative form of thirst"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Southern",
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "first"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Middle English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (bdd14c0 and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.

"first" meaning in Middle English

Adjective

Noun

Alternative forms