different between ers vs erst

English

Verb

ers

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of er

Anagrams

• ESR, RSE, Res., SER, SRE, res, ser, ser.

Afrikaans

Noun

ers

1. plural of er

French

Etymology

From Occitan èrs, from Latin ervum (“vetch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??/
• Homophones: air, aire, airent, aires, airs, ère, ères, erre, errent, erres, haire, haires, hère, hères

Noun

ers m (plural ers)

1. (botany) bitter vetch, ervil (Vicia ervilia)
2. (botany) Lens ervoides

Further reading

• “ers” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

German

Alternative forms

• er's

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e???s/
• Hyphenation: ers

Contraction

ers

1. Contraction of er es.

Middle English

Noun

ers

1. Alternative form of ars

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English ers, form of ars, from Old English ears, ærs, from Proto-West Germanic *ars, from Proto-Germanic *arsaz.

Noun

ers (plural erses)

1. arse, buttocks

References

• “ers” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
• “ers” in Eagle, Andy, editor, The Online Scots Dictionary^[2], 2016.

Swedish

Pronoun

ers

1. your (only in address); a contraction of the archaic eders, being a genitive form of er

   ers majestät = Your Majesty

   ers höghet = Your Highness

Anagrams

• res, ser

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?rs/

Preposition

ers

1. since
2. for (a period of time)

Usage notes

• The present tense, rather than the perfect, is normally used with periods that extend to the present.

Conjunction

ers

1. since

Mutation

English

Alternative forms

• arste
• yerst (dialectal)

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?st/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??st/

Etymology 1

From Middle English erste, from Old English ?resta (“first”), from Proto-West Germanic *airist (“earliest, first”), equivalent to ere +? -est. Cognate with North Frisian eerst, ærst (“first”), West Frisian earst (“first”), Dutch eerste (“first”), German erste (“first”).

Adjective

erst (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) First.

Etymology 2

From Middle English erst, arst, erest, from Old English ?rest (“first, erst, at first, before all”), from Proto-West Germanic *airist(?) (“erst”). Cognate with Scots erst (“erst”), Dutch eerst.

Adverb

erst (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) First of all, before (some other specified thing).
   • 1567, Arthur Golding, Ovid's Metamorphoses, book 2, line 691:

     Consider what I erst have been and what thou seest me now:

2. (obsolete) Sooner (than); before.
3. (archaic, poetic) Formerly, once, erstwhile.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 12:

     When lofty trees I see barren of leaves

     Which erst from heat did canopy the herd

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:erst.

Derived terms

• erstwhile

Anagrams

• 'rest, -estr-, -ster, -ster-, ERTs, REST, Rest., SERT, TERs, estr-, rest, rest., rets, tres

German

Etymology

See the numeral erster.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e?rst/, [?e???st], [????st]

Adverb

erst

1. first, at first
2. only (with progress, accomplishments or the present time)

3. not until, not for, not before (with reference to a point or period of time in the future)

4. only, as recently as (with reference to the past)

5. short for erstmal

Usage notes

• With reference to time periods and moments, the opposite of erst is schon. Erst emphasizes how long it is until something happens or how recently it has happened, whereas schon how soon in the future or far in the past. Thus:

  erst in drei Wochen = "not for three weeks" [and that seems so far away]

  schon in drei Wochen = "in only three weeks" [and I'm glad I don't have to wait any longer]

• With reference to progress and the like, erst emphasizes how young or short, while schon emphasizes how old or long. Thus:

  Sie ist erst 28 Jahre alt  = "She's only 28" [and yet she has so many accomplishments/she looks so much older, etc.]

  Sie ist schon 28 Jahre alt = "She's already 28" [but it seems only yesterday that she was a little girl]

Synonyms

• (1.) zuerst

Related terms

• erster

Further reading

• “erst” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Old Frisian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?e?rst/, [???rst]

Adjective

?rst

1. Alternative form of ?rest

References

• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, ?ISBN