different between higher vs foremost

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?ha??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?ha??/
• Rhymes: -a??(?)
• Homophone: hire (one pronunciation)
• Hyphenation: high?er

Adjective

higher

1. comparative form of high: more high

Adverb

higher

1. comparative form of high: more high

Noun

higher (plural highers)

1. (Scotland, education) A national school-leaving examination and university entrance qualification.

Verb

higher (third-person singular simple present highers, present participle highering, simple past and past participle highered)

1. (transitive) To make higher; to raise or increase in amount or quantity.
   • 1847, George Crosby, Crosby's Parliamentary Record

     It is a fact that other countries have not followed our example, nay, that they have in fact, in some cases, highered the duties upon the admission of our goods. But what has been the result of that policy upon the amount of your exports?

   • 1903, Canada. Parliament. House of Commons, Official Report of the Debates, House of Commons

     I am glad also that my hon. friend the Minister of Finance had the firmness to oppose all these influences to make him change his policy, and I hope, for the good of the country and the blessing of the Dominion, that when any change takes place it will be in the direction of lowering rather than of highering the tariff.

2. (intransitive) To ascend.

Derived terms

• Coity Higher
• Llanrhidian Higher

References

• higher in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

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 ???????????????????????????????? (frumists). 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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f??.m??st/
• Rhymes: -??st

Adjective

foremost (not comparable)

1. first, either in time or in space
2. Most forward; front
3. of a higher rank or position; paramount
4. (nautical) closest to the bow

Translations

Adverb

foremost (not comparable)

1. in front
2. prominently forward
3. especially; particularly
   • 2001, Chantel Laran Sawyer Lumpkin, The Influences of Assets on the Academic Achievement of African American College Students, p. 155:

     As dependent minors the foremost proximal system was family, followed by school and community.

   • 2013, Robert Woods, Evangelical Christians and Popular Culture: Pop Goes the Gospel, p. XXIX:

     Lewis is the twentieth century's foremost popular writer and the most influential public intellectual for evangelicals.

   • 2019, Louise Taylor, Alex Morgan heads USA past England into Women’s World Cup final (in The Guardian, 2 July 2019)[1]

     England head to Nice for Saturday’s third-place playoff after yet more semi-final disappointment but with heads held high having played their part in a wonderful game featuring some particularly harsh luck. Foremost among it was the marginal offside which saw an Ellen White goal disallowed and, later, a penalty miss by Steph Houghton.

Translations