erst

Forms

erst (adverb and particle; the ordinal numeral is erste)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German ērste, inherited from Old High German ērist, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *airista- (“first, earliest”).^[3][1] The same word is Old Saxon ērist, Old English ǣrest and Old Frisian ērost, and today Dutch eerst.^[3][4][5] It is the superlative of a lost comparative, Old High German ēriro (“the earlier”), formed from Proto-Germanic *air (“early”), which survives as Old Norse ár (“early”) and in eher.^[4][5][3]

As an adverb it was originally the accusative neuter of the adjective, as was Latin prīmum (“first”).^[6] As an ordinal number the word replaced older ones such as Old High German furisto (see Fürst) and has no etymological link with eins.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Old High German Benedictine Rule (790/802): az erist “first, at first”.^[5] In the Hildebrandslied (early 9th century) the warriors ærist “first” let their ash spears fly, and Otfrid (863/871) uses erist “first, for the first time”.^[5] Schützeichel gives the senses “first, for the first time, first of all”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From “first in time” the adverb developed the senses “before, beforehand”, then “not until” and “only”, and it came to stress a word or point to the future (sei du erst mal so alt wie wir).^[4][7] The Grimms note that it can stand both for Latin primum “first” and for demum “only then”.^[6] Early New High German still used it for “at that time, then” and “recently”.^[9]

Phrases with prepositions gave zuerst, from Old High German zi ērist, and vorerst, occasional in the 16th century and common from the second half of the 18th.^[4][10] The adverb erstens dates from the 18th century and erstlich from the 16th.^[4][10] In Swiss German erst noch means “moreover, on top of that”.^[2]

Timeline

• 790/802 – az erist “at first” in the Old High German Benedictine Rule.^[5]
• Early 9th century – ærist in the Hildebrandslied.^[5]
• 863/871 – erist in Otfrid's Gospel book.^[5]
• 16th century – erstlich “firstly” appears.^[4][10]
• 17th century – A new comparative ersterer “the former” is formed.^[4][10]
• 18th century – erstens “firstly” appears.^[4][10]

Meanings

Adverb

1. first, before anything else: erst kommst du an die Reihe, dann er.^[2][1]
2. At first, at the beginning.^[2][1]
3. Not until, not before: sie wird erst morgen kommen.^[2][1]
4. only, no longer ago than: ich habe ihn erst gestern gesprochen.^[2][1]
5. Only, no more than: er ist erst zehn Jahre alt.^[2][1]

Particle

1. Adds emphasis to a wish: wären wir doch erst zu Hause!.^[2]
2. Marks an intensification: er ist schon frech, aber erst sein Bruder!;^[2][1] erst recht “all the more”.^[2][1]

Word family

• zuerst
• vorerst
• erstens
• erstlich
• Erstling
• erst recht

Related words

• erster
• eher
• ehe

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
3. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 257
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 8, 2181
6. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 990
7. ^ a b Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 91
9. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
10. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag