First vs Before - What's the difference?
first | before |
Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2
, passage=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.}}
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.
* 1784 : William Jones, The Description and Use of a New Portable Orrery, &c. ,
Before anything else; firstly.
* , chapter=8
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=29, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (uncountable) The person or thing in the first position.
* 1699 , ,
(uncountable) The first gear of an engine.
(countable) Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.
(countable, baseball) first base
(countable, British, colloquial) A first-class honours degree.
(countable, colloquial) A first-edition copy of some publication.
A fraction of an integer ending in one.
Earlier than (in time).
* (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner.}}
* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=November 11, author=Rory Houston, work=RTE Sport
, title= In front of in space.
* (John Milton) (1608-1674)
*
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= Under consideration, judgment, authority of (someone).
* (John Ayliffe) (1676-1732)
In store for, in the future of (someone).
* (Thomas Carlyle) (1795-1881)
In front of, according to a formal system of ordering items.
At a higher or greater position in a ranking.
* (Bible), (w) i. 15
* (Samuel Johnson) (1709-1784)
At an earlier time.
* , chapter=12
, title= In advance.
At the front end.
* 1896 , (Hilaire Belloc), The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts , :
As adverbs the difference between first and before
is that first is before anything else; firstly while before is at an earlier time.As an adjective first
is preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.As a noun first
is the person or thing in the first position.As a preposition before is
earlier than (in time).As a conjunction before is
in advance of the time when.first
English
(wikipedia first)Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) (m), .Alternative forms
* firste (archaic) * fyrst (obsolete) * fyrste (obsolete)Adjective
(-)Yesterday’s fuel, passage=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).}}
PREFACE
- THE favourable reception the Orrery has met with from Per?ons of the fir?t di?tinction, and from Gentlemen and Ladies in general, has induced me to add to it ?everal new improvements in order to give it a degree of Perfection; and di?tingui?h it from others; which by Piracy, or Imitation, may be introduced to the Public.
Alternative forms
* ; (in names of monarchs and popes) IAdverb
(-)Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=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.}}
Unspontaneous combustion, passage=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.}}
Noun
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.
Derived terms
* feet first * firstborn * first-class * first gear * first imperative (Latin grammar) * first of all * first place * first things first * first upSee also
* primaryEtymology 2
From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) (m), (m), . See also (l).Statistics
*before
English
Preposition
(English prepositions)- Before this treatise can become of use, two points are necessary.
Estonia 0-4 Republic of Ireland, passage=Stephen Ward then had to time his tackle excellently to deny Tarmo Kink as the Wolves winger slid the ball out of play before the Estonian could attempt to beat Given.}}
- His angel, who shall go / Before them in a cloud and pillar of fire.
- He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance.she found her mother standing up before the seat on which she had sat all the evening searching anxiously for her with her eyes, and her father by her side.
The Evolution of Eyeglasses, passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}
- If a suit be begun before an archdeacon
- The golden ageis before us.
- He that cometh after me is preferred before me.
- The eldest son is before the younger in succession.
Synonyms
* (earlier than in time) by, no later than * (in front of in space) ahead of, in front of * (in front of according to an ordering system) ahead ofAntonyms
* (earlier than in time) after, later than * (in front of in space) behind * (in front of according to an ordering system) afterAdverb
(-)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been distressingly out of place.}}
- When people call this beast to mind,
They marvel more and more
At such a (little) tail behind,
So LARGE a trunk before .