First

See also: first

English

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.

First

From Middle High German virst, from Old High German first, perhaps ultimately from a combination of Proto-Indo-European *per- + *steh₂-, similar to Proto-Indo-Iranian *pr̥štʰás (“ridge, back”), Latin postis (“doorpost”), Ancient Greek παστάς (pastás, “porch”).[1]

First m (strong, genitive Firstes or Firsts, plural Firste)

Declension of First [masculine, strong]

¹Now rare, see notes.

Friedrich Kluge (1883) “First”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891