foremost

UK/ˈfɔː.məʊst/

adjectiveB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,437 of 15,258leans written

Foremost means in front of all the others, in position or in standing. The foremost expert, first and foremost, foremost among them.

It is almost always about rank rather than place: the foremost authority, one of the foremost writers of the century. First and foremost is the fixed phrase, meaning above all else. Note that foremost is a double superlative — Old English formest already meant first-most, and English then added the -most again for good measure, which is why it feels so emphatic.

Definitions of foremost

1adjectiveforemostIn front of all the others in standing or position.B2+
“She is one of the world's foremost experts on ancient Egyptian writing.”
synonyms: leading, principal

foremost is a quality of leading.

Where it comes from

Old English formest already meant first-most, built from a superlative on a superlative. Modern English reanalysed it as fore plus most, which is a wrong reading that produced the right word.

Proto-Indo-European
*pr-
Proto-Germanic
*frumistaz
Old English
formest
English, today
foremost

Built from

fyrmest · Old English — earliest, first, most prominent

From Old English formest, fyrmest (“earliest, first, most prominent”), 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 -umô (as in Old English fruma) + the regular superlative suffix -istaz (English -est); -umô in turn is from Proto-Indo-European -mHo-. Cognate with Old Frisian formest, Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌿𐌼𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍃. 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 -umô 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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Directions & Position

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foremost in the wild

In Theravada Buddhism, he is considered the disciple who was foremost in being "worthy of gifts" and "living remote and in peace".
Subhūti
In Mahayana Buddhism, he is considered foremost in understanding emptiness.
Subhūti
The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs.
Prothorax
According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha declared her his female disciple foremost in wisdom.
Khema
But in the foremost ranks of the intolerant are found several laymen who had high claims to scientific reputation.
Principles of Geology: or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology· Sir Charles Lyell

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

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