firstness

English

Etymology

first +‎ -ness

Noun

firstness (uncountable)

1. The quality of being first; originality; priority
   • 1983, Orson Scott Card, The Worthington Chronicle, Ace, →ISBN:

     But it was not swimming and boating again that pleased him. The joy of it was its firstness: never before had a boat rested on the waters of this world; never before had these children seen a human being swim.

   • 2012, Susan Petrilli, Expression and Interpretation in Language‎^[1], Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 140:

     Firstness (in-itselfness, originality) helps to explain logico-cognitive processes and therefore, at once, the formation of signs.