Etymograph

English

foremost

Foremost comes from Old English formest ‘earliest, first, most prominent’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pr-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pr-1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*frumistaz1‘foremost, first’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150formest1‘earliest, first, most prominent’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1567foremost1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English foremost
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1567, Ovid, The Seconde Booke: “She prankes not by hir mistresse side, she preases…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pr-Wiktionary, English foremostreconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*frumistazWiktionary, English foremost‘foremost, first’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150formestWiktionary, English foremost‘earliest, first, most prominent’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1567foremostWiktionary, English foremost. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1567, Ovid, The Seconde Booke: “She prankes not by hir mistresse side, she preases…”

The story

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-. 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.folk etymology The source marks this as unproven or a folk etymology. Quoted, not asserted.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pr-

former, 3 more

Today it means

adj Positioned in front of (all) others in space, most forward.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “foremost”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *pr- / foremost

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