Firsthand

How to spell firsthand

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce firsthand

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does firsthand mean?

1. adjectiveComing directly from the original source or from one's own direct experience.
2. adverbDirectly, from one's own experience rather than from someone else's report.

Firsthand in a sentence

• adjective

  The reporter gave a firsthand account of the flooding in the town.

• adverb

  He learned firsthand how difficult the commute could be in winter.

• adjective

  She has firsthand knowledge of how the factory floor actually runs.

• adverb

  The inspectors observed the conditions firsthand during their visit.

Where does firsthand come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a compound of two very old native English words, 'first' and 'hand', both inherited from Old English (fyrst meaning 'foremost' or 'earliest', and hond meaning the bodily hand). The expression grows out of a much older mercantile and legal idea of goods or knowledge passing literally from hand to hand: something obtained 'at first hand' came straight from the original source, before it had been passed along to anyone else, while 'second hand' goods had already changed owners. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the phrase 'at first hand' was firmly established, and the closed compound 'firsthand' settled into use as both an adjective and an adverb describing knowledge or experience gained directly. The closely related noun 'secondhand' preserves exactly the same image of ownership being relayed onward. Because both halves are familiar everyday words, the only real spelling decision is whether to write it solid, which is the standard modern form.

How the word is built

• first (foremost, earliest)
• hand (the source or agent, as in passing something hand to hand)