foremost

Meanings

Adjective

Adverb

Origin

  • From Old English formest, fyrmest, from Proto-Germanic *frumistaz, from the locative stem *fur-, *fr- + the superlative suffix *-umistaz, stem ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pr-. The suffix *-umistaz was a compound suffix, created from the rarer comparative suffix *-umΓ΄ (as in Old English fruma) + the regular superlative suffix *-istaz (English -est); *-umΓ΄ in turn is from Proto-Indo-European *-mHo-.
  • Cognate with Old Frisian formest, Gothic π†π‚πŒΏπŒΌπŒΉπƒπ„πƒ. See for, first and Old English fruma for more. Partially cognate to primus, from Proto-Indo-European *pr- + Latin superlative suffix -imus, from Proto-Indo-European *-mHo-.
  • A comparative former was back-formed analogically, leaving the m from *-umΓ΄ in place. Later the Old English suffix complex -(u)m-est was conflated with the word most through folk etymology, so that the word is now interpreted as fore + -most.

Modern English dictionary

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